EU Standards in Witness Protection and Collaboration with Justice


Book Description

This book presents the results of a study conducted for the European Commission, aimed at preparing legislative European initiative in the areas of both procedural and non-procedural witness protection and collaboration with justice. Already the March 2000 Strategy for the beginning of the new millennium, on the prevention and control of organised crime, had called for such initiative. The book 'EU standards on witness protection and collaboration with justice' contains well-balanced proposals for three new framework decisions regarding respectively anonymous witnesses, collaborators with justice and protected witnesses. This book is essential reading for policy makers, judicia (and law enforcement authorities throughout the European Union or from a broader international context. lt wilt be appealing also to researchers and anyone involved or taking an interest in witness or victim protection and/or combating (cross-border) crime at European or international level.




Rethinking International Cooperation in Criminal Matters in the EU


Book Description

In the European Union, international cooperation in criminal matters has grown exponentially over the past few decades. Importantly, there are a wide variety of authorities involved therein, rendering the traditional distinction between police and judicial cooperation as outdated. Furthermore, its rapid growth exposed this policy field to inconsistencies and incoherence. Additionally, despite the wave of new legislation, important lacunae can be identified, setting important challenges for the future. The combination of these issues clarifies the title of this book: there is a pressing need to rethink international cooperation in criminal matters. In answer to a call from the European Commission, the contributors of this book have designed a comprehensive methodological framework to review the entirety of international cooperation in criminal matters, combining desktop reviews, expert consultations, Member State questionnaires, and focus group meetings in each of the Member States to obtain a comprehensive overview of the currently experienced obstacles and future policy options that are both needed and feasible. Over 150 individuals from different backgrounds contributed to the study, including academics, lawyers, policy makers, police, customs, intelligence services, prosecution, judiciary, correctional authorities, Ministries of Justice, and Home Affairs. The book provides an overview of the research findings and the recommendations formulated. These findings include, but are not limited to: (1) a helicopter view on cooperation with criminal justice finality, (2) a clear demarcation of the role of the judicial authorities, (3) a comprehensive review of refusal grounds, including proportionality and capacity concerns, (4) an assessment of gaps in the current body of instruments regulating international cooperation in criminal matters and possible remedies thereto, (5) a well-considered further development of Eurojust, and (6) ensuring EU wide effect of mere domestic actions. This book represents the first overall analysis of the entirety of international cooperation in criminal matters in the EU. As essential reading, it is an analysis that moves beyond the actors, bringing logic back, footed in reality. (Series: Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy [IRCP] - No. 42)




EU and International Crime Control


Book Description

EU and International Crime Control focuses on intrinsic EU criminal policy aspects, including its transatlantic cooperation with the US. Additionally, the book examines anti-money laundering control, counter-strategies of criminal organizations, and police torture. Chapters include: Appreciating Approximation: Using Common Offense Concepts to Facilitate Police and Judicial Cooperation in the EU * Approximation and Mutual Recognition of Procedural Safeguards of Suspects and Defendants in Criminal Proceedings throughout the European Union * Shaping the Competence of Europol: An FBI Perspective * Towards a Coherent EU Policy on Outgoing Data Transfers for Use in Criminal Matters? The Adequacy Requirement and the Framework Decision on Data Protection in Criminal Matters: A Transatlantic Exercise in Adequacy * The International Private Security Industry as Part of the European Union Security Framework: A Critical Assessment of the French EU Presidency White Paper * The Anti-Money Laundering Complex on a Crime Control Continuum: Perceptions of Risk, Power and Efficacy * The Use of Counterstrategies by Criminal Organizations: 'Intimidation and the Use of Violence against Police Officers' * Police Torture in China and Its Causes.




Witness Protection and Criminal Justice in Africa


Book Description

This book examines the concept of witness protection which is still at an early developmental stage in several African countries including Nigeria, from a legal and institutional perspective. Recent developments in Nigeria highlight the need to clarify legal and conceptual issues within the existing legal framework for protecting witnesses. Using the Nigerian case study, the book illustrates some obscurities inherent in the concept of witness protection. These are highlighted around five critical areas: the definition of witness protection; the scope of beneficiaries requiring protection; the nature of crimes necessitating protection; the nature of protective measures; and the administrative control of witness protection. Specifically, this book draws from the existing literature and practices of witness protection and adopts two distinct perspectives: the criminal justice perspectives and human rights perspectives as heuristic tools for analysing the concept and to separate the disparate influences that shape how it is construed. These distinctions are utilised throughout the book as an integrated way of conceptualising the concept of witness protection. By discussing the practice of witness protection within the Nigerian context, the book contributes to African conversations on the topic of witness protection. The clarifications made in this book are utilised in making normative proposals for developing a legal framework for witness protection in Nigeria. They are also useful for other African countries interested in developing a witness protection framework as part of criminal justice reform. This book will serve as a reference point for legal scholars, researchers, academics, (postgraduate) students and policy makers interested in the concept of witness protection. It would also be useful for courses ‘concerned with comparative criminology where there is an interest in developments in the Global South.’




EULOCS


Book Description

The EU Level Offence Classification System (EULOCS) brings together the current EU substantive criminal law acquis, building essentially on offence definitions referred to in legal instruments included in the EU Justice and Home Affairs (EU JHA) acquis. In doing so, EULOCS clarifies the scope between EU competence and national sovereignty with regard to defining criminal behavior. With this book, EULOCS is bench-marked as a reference index for serving various needs in the broader EU criminal policy area, having the potential to significantly enhance the internal coherence thereof. The proposed reference index, with offence definitions inherent to it, fundamentally addresses the problem created by the organic elaboration and adoption of legal instruments at the EU level, making reference to certain offence categories the scope or definition whereof is most often either not clarified or indicated, or left to the discretion of the individual Member States. Before elaborating on the creation of EULOCS - the methodology used, its main characteristics, and the potential for further development in the coming years - this book contains a brief overview of the incoherence in the EU JHA field and a reference to the EU study to implement the Action Plan to measure crime and criminal justice, conducted for the European Commission in the course of 2008-2009, in the context of which EULOCS has been created. Most importantly, the full EULOCS, with all its complementary variables and context fields, has been inserted. This book is essential reading for EU policy makers, judicial and law enforcement authorities throughout the Union, as well as those in a broader international context. It will be particularly appealing also to the research community and anyone involved in or taking an interest in justice and home affairs or criminal policy initiatives in the EU.




Protecting witnesses of serious crime


Book Description

Witnesses play a crucial role in the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of serious and organised crimes, and a range of protection measures are needed to ensure that witnesses can testify freely and without intimidation and receive protection before, during and after trial. This publication contains recently adopted Council of Europe and other standards in this field, as well as a compendium of national laws and practices in the countries which participated in the joint Council of Europe and European Commission CARPO regional police project from 2004 to 2006.




The Future of Police and Judicial Cooperation in the EU


Book Description

Since the early 1990s, cross-border police and judicial cooperation has become a very important domain of the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty – if accepted by all the Member States – will certainly be a major stimulus to its further development in the field of internal security as well as in the field of external policy. In any event, the recent proposal for a new third comprehensive policy programme with regard to the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice – the so-called Stockholm Programme – foreshadows some of the changes the Brussels institutions and the Member States would like to embrace in the coming years. This book contains the contributions of scholars and practitioners to a conference on the future of police and judicial cooperation in the European Union that took place in November 2008 at Tilburg University. Referring to what has been achieved in this domain since the Treaty of Maastricht, these papers not only assess the proposals that have been put forward in successive policy documents relating to the Stockholm Programme, but they also pinpoint to the ongoing problems in the theory and practice of police and judicial cooperation within the European Union and to the ways in which these questions could best be solved.




Readings on Criminal Justice, Criminal Law & Policing


Book Description

In today's globalized society, an international exchange of ideas and views is indispensable within the field of social sciences, including criminology and criminal justice studies. The research group Governance of Security (GofS) fosters contemporary international discourses on issues of crime and crime control. In 2008, GofS started a research paper series, combining theoretical and empirical articles on issues reflecting the research activities of GofS. This research group is a collaboration between Ghent University and Ghent University College in Belgium. GofS concentrates its research around the study of administrative and judicial policy that have been developed with respect to new issues of crime and insecurity. The GofS series - Governance of Security Research Papers (GofS) - is published by Maklu Publishing (Belgium). Readings on Criminal Justice, Criminal Law and Policing - Volume 2 of GofS's series Governance of Security Research Papers - includes the following: Punishment across Borders: The Rationales behind International Execution of Sentences . Interpreting the Concept of 'Discretionary Power' within the Execution of Sentences: A Comparison between the Belgian and French Situation . Esperanto for EU Crime Statistics: Towards Common European Offense Definitions in an EU-level Offense Classification System . Developing a Framework for the Legal Rights of Victims and Witnesses . What Can European Institutions and the International Criminal Court Learn from Each Other? . Purpose Limitation in EU-US Data Exchange in Criminal Matters: The Remains of the Day . Some Criminal Law Reflections on the Sexual Transmission of HIV . Reading about Crime in Post-Intervention Societies: A Critical Assessment . Policing and Leadership: The Case of the Belgian Chiefs of the Local Police . Reflections on the Possible Integration of Intelligence-Led Policing into Community Policing: The Belgian Case . Reliability and Correlational Validity of Police Interview Competences: Assessing the Stability of the Police Interview Competency Inventory . The Role of Europol in Joint Investigation Teams: A Foretaste of an Executive European Police Office? . Checking Aspects of a "Nodal Orientation" for Policing the Port of Antwerp.




HPCR Practitioner's Handbook on Monitoring, Reporting, and Fact-Finding


Book Description

This book offers a portrait of the practice of monitoring, reporting, and fact-finding in the domain of human rights, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. By analyzing the experiences of fifteen missions implemented over the course of the past decade, the book illuminates the key issues that these missions face and offers a roadmap for practitioners working on future missions. This book is the result of a five-year research study led by the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University, Massachusetts. Based on extensive interviews conducted with fact-finding practitioners, this book consists of two parts. Part I offers a handbook that details methodological considerations for the design and implementation of fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry. Part II - which consists of chapters written by scholars and practitioners - presents a more in-depth, scholarly examination of past fact-finding practices.




European Criminal Justice and Policy


Book Description

Reviewing European policy with respect to different phases in the criminal justice chain, the contributions in this book range from looking into the extension of criminalization in the sphere of trafficking in human beings and labor exploitation, to the operability of cross-border execution of sentences involving deprivation of liberty. Most contributions look into the need to develop a conceptual framework to support future policy making, pointing to the lack thereof with respect to liability of legal persons, ne bis in idem as an EU principle, cross-border effect of disqualifications, and cooperation with private security actors. One essay looks into the public expenditure in different phases of the criminal justice chain, based on a case study on the public expenditure of Belgian drug policy. Additionally, from a historical and comparative perspective, the book analyzes specific European and Chinese interrogation rules to provide a solid context for the current situation and to support future legal reforms. (Series: Governance of Security (GofS) Research Paper - Vol. 7)