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Towards an Integrated European Criminal Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2017

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The creation of an economically integrated Europe, based on free circulation across open borders, has probably facilitated an increase in transnational crime. One response to this phenomenon has been to try to create an integrated European criminal law. But legal integration will not magically solve all the problems related to transnational crime. Indeed, it may create problems of its own. By favouring efficiency (that is, repression) over legitimacy (the protection of fundamental rights), it favours a criminal justice policy oriented towards ‘security’. By imposing the same rules throughout Europe, it disturbs the internal consistency of national legal systems. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of legal integration, facilitated by new legal instruments such as framework decisions, continues to develop. We might therefore ask ourselves, as an introduction, why this is so.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge 2005

References

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10 Art 2-2 provides for extradition ‘without verification of the double criminality of the act’ for participation in a criminal organisation; terrorism; trafficking in human beings; sexual exploitation of children and child pornography; illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; illicit trafficking in weapons, munitions and explosives; corruption; fraud, including that affecting the financial interests of the European Communities within the meaning of the Convention of 26 July 1995 on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests; laundering of the proceeds of crime; counterfeiting currency, including of the euro; computer-related crime; environmental crime, including illicit trafficking in endangered animal species and in endangered plant species and varieties; facilitation of unauthorised entry and residence; murder, grievous bodily injury; illicit trade in human organs and tissue; kidnapping, illegal restraint and hostage-taking; racism and xenophobia; organised or armed robbery; illicit trafficking in cultural goods, including antiques and works of art; swindling; racketeering and extortion; counterfeiting and piracy of products; forgery of administrative documents and trafficking therein; forgery of means of payment; illicit trafficking in nuclear or radioactive materials; trafficking in stolen vehicles; rape; arson; crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court; unlawful seizure of aircraft/ships; and sabotage.

11 Harmonised definitions of corruption are found in the 1997 European Union and OECD Conventions; for terrorism, see the 2002 EU Framework Decision on combating terrorism; for environmental crime, see the 2003 Framework Decision on the protection of the environment through criminal law; for sexual exploitation of children, see the 2003 Framework Decision on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography; for trafficking in nar cotics, see the 2004 Framework Decision laying down minimum provisions on the constituent elements of criminal acts and penalties in the field of illicit drug trafficking.

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15 Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on the European Evidence Warrant for obtaining objects, documents and data for use in proceedings in criminal matters, COM(2003)688 final 2003/0270 (CNS) (11 Nov 2003).

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19 L’harmonisation des sanctions pénales, above n 7; see also the European Commission, Green Paper of 30 Apr 2004 on the approximation, mutual recognition and enforcement of criminal sanctions in the European Union, COM (2004) 334 final.

20 See, in particular, Council of Europe Recommendation R(92)17 Concerning Consistency in Sentencing (1992) at http://www.prison.eu.org/article.php3?id_article=2949 (last visited 21 June 2005) and Council of Europe Recommendation R(92)16 on the European rules on Community sanctions and measures (1992) at http://www.victimology.nl/onlpub/international/ce.html (last visited 21 June 2005).

21 On the execution of sentencing decisions, see, in particular, Vernimmen, G, ‘A propos de la reconnaissance mutuelle des décisions sentencielles en général’ in Kerchove, G de and Weyembergh, A (eds), La reconnaissance mutuelle des décisions judiciaires pénale dans l’UE (Brussels, Université de Bruxelles, 2002)Google Scholar.

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27 Corpus juris, above n 23.

28 The Implementation of the Corpus Juris, above n 23, i, at 142–85.

29 Select Committee on the European Communities, Prosecuting fraud on the Communities finances, the Corpus juris (9th Report, Session 1998–1999, House of Lords Paper 62).

30 The Implementation of the Corpus Juris, above n 23.

31 See A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, House of Lords (16 December 2004) in which the Lords of Appeal held a portion of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 to be incompatible with Arts 5 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

32 Damaska, M, ‘Negotiated Justice in International Criminal Courts’ (2004) 2 Journal of International Criminal Justice 1018 CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 1019.

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34 Pupino, ECJ, 16 June 2005, C-105/03, regarding the framework decision of march 2001 on the status of victims, requires adaption of Italian criminal procedure to European imperatives and thus runs the risk of granting framework decisions the direct effect reserved by the treaties to derivative law (regulations and directives). This may weaken the rights of the accused.

35 Commision v Council, C176-03, ECJ, 13 Sept. 2005, para. 48. For a discussion of the framework decision on environmental criminal law, see G. Giudicelli-Delage, “Les figures de I’internationalisation pénale”, Revue de Science Criminelle 2005, n°3

36 S. Manacorda, “Judical activism dans le cadre de l’escape de liberté, de justice et de sécurité de l’Union européenne”, to be published, RSC 2005, n°4 (in addition to the ECJ decision cited above), the auther comments on three decisions: that of theh Constitutional Court of Poland (27 March 2005) declaring the text contrary to the Constitution but suspending the decision’s application; of the Belgian Court of Arbitration (13 July 2005), which petitioned the ECJ for a preliminary reference; and of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (18 July 2005), which finds unconstitutional and abrogates the German law on the European arrest warrant.)