European Criminal Law

Apresentação destinada a um Seminário na disciplina "Cibercriminalidade" do Mestrado em Direito e Informática da Escola de Direito da Universidade do Minho, no dia 19 de maio de 2023, o qual tenho lecionado desde 2012.
Uma versão anterior servira de apoio uma aula da disciplina "Direito e Segurança Informática" do Mestrado em Segurança Informática da Universidade de Coimbra, no dia 2 de dezembro de 2022.

The increasing legislative activity in the field of eu criminal law has highlighted the need for a coherent and consistent approach to criminalisation, which has been acknowledged by the eu institutions themselves. One of the basic questions all legislators need to tackle, however, is what sorts of conduct can be (legitimately) criminalised. The aim of this article is, firstly, to examine the prevailing substantive criminalisation principle(s) in the eu Member States’ criminal law theories; secondly, to sketch an ideal criminalisation process, which although applicable at national level can be useful also at eu level, and thirdly, to inspect the existing criminal law grounds for criminalisation and the criminal policy orientations at eu level in order to find out what the underlying substantive criminalisation principle behind eu criminal law is or ought to be, alongside other principles that may act as ‘limiting factors’ within the criminalisation process.

The drive for harmonisation of environmental criminal standards at both the international and European level emerges from the increasing recognition of the scale and seriousness of environmental crime, the need to strengthen mechanisms of police and judicial interstate cooperation to combat crossborder crime, and the objective to ensure fair competition in a global economy and an integrated EU common market. The harmonisation of environmental criminal law requires a competent institutional framework able to convey the need for criminalisation of environmental harm while
not overriding national aspirations to sovereignty in criminal matters. The book Enironmental Criminal Liability and Enforcement in European and International Law assesses legal, theoretical and practical questions of harmonisation of national environmental criminal law and the mechanisms for cooperation by sovereign states under European and International Law, with a particular emphasis on legislative developments in the European Union, the Council of Europe and other international institutions, assessing the case for an extension of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over international environmental crimes.

La Corte di cassazione riconferma la configurabilità del reato di riciclaggio nel caso in cui, su un veicolo di provenienza delittuosa, sia apposta targa di pertinenza di un diverso veicolo.
Tale interpretazione giurisprudenziale, imperniata sull'effetto di ostacolo all'identificazione della provenienza del bene, rappresenta il punto di partenza per una più ampia riflessione in tema di riciclaggio.

A tényállás magyarországi bevezetése, 1997 óta a gyermekekkel kapcsolatos pornográf bűncselekmények jelentősen megváltoztak mind a magyar büntetőtörvényben, mind az Európai Unió büntetőjogi jogalkotásában. E változások egy része a közelmúltban történt. A jelen tanulmány e két folyamatot tekinti át párhuzamosan, időrendben megpróbálja kimutatni a két szabályozási szint közt mutatkozó kölcsönhatásokat és a magyar jogalkotás „ellenállását” bizonyos uniós jogi elvárásokkal szemben. Ezt követően röviden felveti, hogy a gyermekpornográfia tényállása kiváló példája annak, hogy szigorúbb jogalkotási technikák alkalmazása híján a jogalkalmazó büntetőjogi szabályok kapcsán is arra kényszerül, hogy az Európai Uniós joganyagot hívja segítségül a Btk. jelentésének megismerése érdekében.

Autor se u radu bavi pitanjem Evropskog krivičnog prava sa aspekta harmonizacije nacionalnih materijalnih i procesnih krivičnopravnih sistema država članica. S tim u vezi, autor daje istorijski prikaz razvoja međunarodne saradnje u krivičnim stvarima na prostoru Evropske unije od Mastrihta do Lisabona. Posebnu pažnju posvećuje novinama koje su u u ovoj oblasti saradnje uvedene Lisabonskim ugovorom.

Ključne reči: Evropsko krivično pravo, Lisabonski ugovor, Evropska unija, Međunarodna krivično pravna saradnja.

Abstract

The author deals with the issue of European criminal law from aspect of harmonization of national substantive and procedural criminal law systems of the Member States. In this connection, the author gives a historical rewiev of the development of international cooperation in criminal matters in the territory of the European Union from Maastricht to Lisbon. Special attention is paid to the novelties which are in this area of cooperation introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon.

Keywords: European criminal law, the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Union, International criminal law cooperation.

The paper focuses on the review of material criminal law provisions of European legal systems regarding defamation and libel. As such, it covers statements (passing on statements) and acts that injure, or are capable of injuring, the dignity and/or honour of individual persons, as well as the position of various legal systems regarding such statements and actions. The paper concludes that Europe has a long-standing tradition of using the means of criminal law to protect human dignity, and this tradition is still kept by most European legal systems. Out of the 29 European countries (28 EU Member States and Switzerland) reviewed, a total of 24 countries apply civil law damages and solatium doloris in combination with penal sanctions against persons who violate the dignity or honour of other natural persons by asserting or disseminating true or false statements of fact, or by other acts that violate the protected legal subjects mentioned above. Nevertheless, an opposite trend also seems to emerge in the last ten to fifteen years, more and more countries cease to apply criminal law to sanction such actions. This abolition process is not taking place at the same speed throughout Europe; it is most apparent in the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (with the two exceptions being the United Kingdom and Ireland; the countries rejecting criminal sanctions include Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Georgia, Estonia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Tajikistan, Armenia, Romania, and—standing for partial abolition— Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, and Serbia), while the traditional punitive approach is more common—at least at the level of legislation—in the Central, Southern, Northern, and Western parts of Europe. The latter observation needs particular emphasis, because the courts of various countries make use of the theoretically available means of criminal law to rather varying degrees; harsher punishment is (or has been so far) more prevalent in German, French, and Italian territories, including prison time to be served by the defendant, while the Northern countries (Finland, Sweden, and even Norway) tend not to apply a guilty verdict or to impose a lenient fine or other sanctions not involving the restriction of liberty in such criminal proceedings. It seems certain that criminal law is to remain a fundamental means of protecting the honour and dignity of individuals in the long run, but the prevalence of making use of such means is apparently decreasing in the abolitionist countries as well as other countries. However, the general European trend of reducing the application of prison sentences, the available statistics, the example of some countries otherwise following a rigorous approach (especially Italy), as well as the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights indicate that imprisonment may be replaced, slowly and gradually during the following years and decades, by other forms of punishment—especially fines—that do not involve the restriction of liberty.

In this study, I summarized the short development of European criminal policy and its main, generally considered to be valid criteria. My aim is for us to understand the characteristics and speciality of European criminal policy, in contrast to our national criminal policy, primarily of course, the differences, because these are the novelties that that can free criminal policy from the agenda and aims of actual- and party politics. By this, they serve as assurance that criminal policy always be active based on a professional basis, as an effective tool for realistic aims, Europe-wide control of crime.

Official Question:
When considering reverse onus provisions, the various criteria that have been developed to determine compatibility with Article 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights compound the problems of uncertainty and inconsistency.
Taken from my final year Evidence exam, thus it was limited to 1000 words - awarded Mid 1st

European Arrest Warrant was one of new legal measures put forward by the European Union after 9/11. As part of the EU’s response to the rising threat of global terrorism and transnational organized crime, the Council adopted on 13 June 2002 the framework decision on the European arrest warrant (EAW) and the surrender procedures between the Member States.The EAW was designed as a useful tool for simplification and acceleration of extradition procedures between EU countries. It was presumed that the respective judicial authorities of the Member States act in a common juridical space delimited by the EU law and thereby they can apply simplified procedural solutions.
The present collection contains papers delivered to a seminar organized in January 2006 to provide opportunities for an open, free and constructive discussion on the implementation and application of the framework decision on the EAW in the EU, and the above mentioned “troublemakers” in particular.

This book represents the main output of the research project titled “Prison overcrowding and alternatives to detention”, funded by the European Commission and completed in the spring of 2016. The resarch started from the acknowledgment that both European and national legal sources increasingly associate the use of non-custodial sanctions and measures with the “pragmatic” objective of reducing the prison population. The present publication, therefore, openly places emphasis on the relationship between the expansion of some alternatives to detention and objective of reducing the incarceration rates. The book begins with a first section dedicated to the ‘supranational sources’  regarding alternatives to detention. It does so by highlighting the prioritarian deflationary function that alternatives to imprisonment have come to perform under European law. The book also features a second section made up of national reports. The latter have all the same structure. They start off by providing an overview of the prison population in the fifteen years between 2000 and 2015. Then follows a presentation of the alternative sanctions or measures in force in the national legal system, broken down according to the procedural stage in which they can be applied. The book ends with a chapter dedicated to  “cross-cutting” conclusions drawn on the basis of the overall results of the research and in particular the conclusions of the national reports.

Учебное пособие представляет собой работу, в которой рассматриваются теоретические проблемы института крайней необходимости как обстоятельства, исключающего преступность деяния.
Пособие предназначается студентам и преподавателям юридических вузов, аспирантам, сотрудникам правоохранительных органов и судов, а также всем, кто интересуется проблемами обстоятельств, исключающих преступность деяния.

It is certainly true that the juridical system on the protection
of human rights in Europe is rather complex. This is for two
main reasons; firstly, the Charter serves as a clear legal basis
for the CJEU to rule on fundamental rights issues and, secondly,
the EU’s intensive legislative activity in criminal matters
has produced a great amount of cases that most often impinge
upon sensitive human rights issues. This has necessarily resulted
in the CJEU dwelling on what has so far been an exclusive
domain of the ECtHR and national courts. Against this
background, the current article highlights issues with respect
to the sharing of competence over fundamental rights by the
two courts.

La monografia è frutto di un’opera di rielaborazione della tesi di Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza dell’Autore. L’Autore, dopo la disamina dell’origine storica e della disciplina giuridica del mandato d’arresto europeo (c.d. MAE), introdotto dalla decisione quadro 2002/584/GAI, con particolare riferimento alla legge d’attuazione nell’ordinamento italiano e alle differenze dell’istituto con l’estradizione, tratta delle violazioni sul piano dei diritti fondamentali che ha comportato l’introduzione del MAE. In particolare, il lavoro si concentra sul ridimensionamento del principio di doppia incriminazione, sull’inosservanza del principio di tassatività della legge penale, violazione dimostrata anche attraverso l’ausilio dell’analisi comparata di alcune fattispecie di reato così come disciplinate in alcuni Paesi europei, sul superamento del divieto di estradizione per un reato politico, nonché sulla scarna disciplina dettata dal legislatore nella decisione quadro introduttiva del MAE in tema di “giusto processo”. L’Autore, inoltre, procede ad un’attenta analisi della giurisprudenza della Corte di Giustizia europea, delle Corti Costituzionali degli Stati membri dell’UE, nonché della Corte di Cassazione italiana, analisi condotta con una costante attenzione alla giurisprudenza in tema di rispetto dei diritti fondamentali. Per la risoluzione di tali problemi sul piano delle violazioni ai diritti e garanzie fondamentali causate dalla disciplina del MAE, sono state proposte due soluzioni alternative in una prospettiva de iure condendo: la prima, in un’ottica maggiormente aderente all’attuale momento storico e politico dell’Unione europea, è volta ad una modifica della decisione quadro; la seconda auspica, in un prossimo futuro, alla creazione di un diritto penale e processuale europeo.

Η ανακριτική διείσδυση αποτελεί ένα από τα επαχθέστερα ανακριτικά
μέτρα για την αντιμετώπιση του οργανωμένου εγκλήματος . Η οριοθέτησή της είναι
ασφαλώς ένα δύσκολο και επίπονο νομικό ζήτημα , όπως είναι ασφαλώς και η
αντίστοιχη διάκριση της νόμιμης ανακριτικής διείσδυσης από την «παράνομη»
παγίδευση του προσώπου κατά του οποίου διενεργείται. Οι κίνδυνοι που ελλοχεύουν
για τα ατομικά δικαιώματα και ελευθερίες είναι πολλοί, για αυτό και το μέτρο αυτό
πρέπει να διατάσσεται και να διενεργείται με φειδώ και περίσσεια σύνεση μόνο σε
συγκεκριμένες εξατομικευμένες περιπτώσεις και υπό συγκεκριμένες προϋποθέσεις,
με απόλυτο σεβασμό στην αρχή της αναγκαιότητας ( ως ειδικότερη έκφανση της
αρχής της αναλογικότητας), αφού το μέτρο αυτό πρέπει να είναι το «έσχατο
καταφύγιό» μας για την κατάληψη του δράστη τη στιγμή που τελεί μια αξιόποινη
πράξη ή τη συλλογή αποδεικτικού υλικού για την αντιμετώπιση του οργανωμένου
εγκλήματος. Σκοπός της εισήγησης αυτής είναι αποτύπωση των θέσεων του ΕΔΔΑ
για την αστυνομική παγίδευση μέσω της επισκόπησης διαφόρων αποφάσεών του για
το ζήτημα αυτό . Ειδικότερα, με την επισκόπηση αποφάσεων του ΕΔΔΑ που
αφορούν τη χώρα μας, θα συναχθούν κάποια συμπεράσματα για τη στάση της
ελληνικής νομολογίας (κυρίως του ΑΠ) σε σχέση με την ανακριτική διείσδυση και τη
συμμόρφωσή της προς τη στάση του ΕΔΔΑ. Καταλήγοντας, ο εισηγητής θα καταλήξει
σε κάποια συμπεράσματα , αλλά και κάποιες προτάσεις περί του πως θα μπορούσε
σε εθνικό επίπεδο να διενεργείται αυτό το μέτρο , αλλά ποιες θα είναι οι θεσμικές και
δικονομικές εγγυήσεις με τις οποίες θα μπορούσαν να κατοχυρωθούν τα θεμελιώδη
δικαιώματα του προσώπου κατά του οποίου διενεργείται το επαχθές αυτό μέτρο .

Nell’ambito della strategia di rafforzamento della lotta contro i reati e gli illeciti che offendono gli interessi finanziari dell’UE, lo scorso dicembre è stato approvato il nuovo Regolamento OLAF. L’articolo prende in esame le principali novità, riguardanti il coordinamento con EPPO, il rafforzamento dei poteri e dei mezzi d’investigazione a disposizione dell’Ufficio e i controlli e le garanzie procedurali sulla legittimità del suo operato. Pur a fronte di una lunga gestazione, la riforma non costituisce un significativo cambio di passo e non incide in profondità sul funzionamento dell’Ufficio, che resta in gran parte ancorato ai diritti e alle autorità nazionali.

This book contains research conducted by academics from EU Member States and candidate countries. Editors have selected research that represents ideas on the numerous aspects of criminal, commercial, civil, consumer protection, and judicial system, international, family, international private, administrative and constitutional law with focus on reconciliation, European ideas and values, and European Union law.