Book Review: Handbook of European Criminal Procedure
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2032284419829215 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Review
Handbook of European Criminal Procedure, Roberto E. Kostoris (ed.) (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2018), ISBN
978-3-319-72462-1, 445 pp., €155.99
Reviewed by: Lorena Bachmaier Winter, Complutense Uni versity Madrid, Sp ain
DOI: 10.1177/2032284419829215
More than 60 years have passed since the Treaty of Paris, after having established the European
Steel and Coal Community, set the foundations of what has become the present European Union
(EU). While the security and market interests were – and still are – dominant in the then European
Community which is now the European Union, the decisive move towards greater political inte-
gration and the efforts to create a true European citizenship have turned this regional supranational
organization into one of the most interesting constitutional ‘laboratories’ in the world. Judicial
cooperation in civil and commercial matters has for long been at the forefront of European
interests, as long as the free circulation this kind of judgments is crucial for economic transactions
and the transnational enforcement of contracts. This is why already on 27 September 1968 the
European Convention of Brussels on the jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgments in
civil and commercial matters was a dopted, a Convention that has evolved in the present EU
Regulation 1215/12. In contrast, cooperation in criminal matters was somehow lagging behind,
not only because sovereign States have always been reluctant to yield powers in the field of crime
and criminal prosecution, but perhaps because it was not regarded as a priority for a European
Community striving primarily to become a strong economic player.
But cooperation in criminal matters has not only gained relevance, since the alarming increase
of truly transnational crimes – such as cybercrime and organised criminality –, but it has become
highly necessary since the abolition of internal border controls through the Schengen agreement.
Cooperation needs to be effective in the area of criminal matters. Mirroring somewhat the principle
of automatic recognition already tested with regard to civil and commercial judgments, Europe has
also advanced toward cooperation based on the principle of mutual recognition in criminal matters.
While an efficient cooperation is demanded in the single Area of Freedom, Security and Justice,
the increasing powers of the prosecution cannot leave behind the need for protection of funda-
mental rights, and as criminal procedure is mainly a framework of guarantees for citizens, the
protection of procedural rights have to be effectively upheld in a European Union that aims to be
governed by the Rule of Law.
This newly published Handbook of European Criminal Procedure, is edit ed by Roberto E
Kostoris, Professor at the University of Padova (Italy), who needs no introduction: he is well
known in academia and not only among those who study criminal justice. In his lengthy carriera
accademica, his works have focused primarily on fundamental rights at the European level, but he
New Journal of European Criminal Law
2019, Vol. 10(1) 93–96
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
njecl.sagepub.com
NJECL
NJECL
To continue reading
Request your trial