Book Review: The Court of Justice and European Criminal Law: Leading Cases in a Contextual Analysis
| Author | Alessandro Rosanò |
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2032284420982393 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Review
The Court of Justice and European Criminal Law: Leading Cases in a Contextual Analysis, Valsamis Mitsilegas, Alberto
di Martino and Leandro Mancano (eds.) (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2019), ISBN 9781509911172, 496 pp., £81
Reviewed by: Alessandro Rosan`
o, University of Turin, Italy
DOI: 10.1177/2032284420982393
In the first half of the 1980s, C. Pedrazzi and R. Riz – two of the most influential Italian criminal
law professors of their era – began their analyses of supranational criminal law on the assumption
that it existed neither as a field of law nor as a field of legal research. Both professors stated that the
Community legal system had not developed such a field, whether in terms of substantive or of
procedural criminal law; in particular, there was no common European concept of punishment.
Although this criticism was broadly correct at the time, the European Court of Justice had
already begun to take an interest in criminal matters.
In a 1971 case, the Italian Government argued that the Court lacked jurisdiction to give
preliminary rulings on matters involving national criminal law. The Court rejected this, holding
that Community law does not make any distinction as to whether the national procedure in the
context of which questions are referred for a preliminary ruling is criminal in nature and that the
effectiveness of Community law cannot vary according to the areas of national law (SAIL [1972],
para 5).
Subsequently, the Court clarified its reasoning, holding that in principle criminal law and the
rules of criminal procedure do remain within the competence of the Member States. However, this
is subject to some limits. Firstly, administrative measures or penalties must not go beyond what is
strictly necessary. Secondly, it is not permissible to impose penalties which are so disproportionate
to the seriousness of the offence as to constitute an obstacle to the freedoms provided by the Treaty
(Casati [1981], para 27).
Thus, in one sense Pedrazzi and Riz were right that Community criminal law did not exist in the
1980s: the European Communities lacked any formal competence in the field. However, suprana-
tional law had already begun to affect criminal law. Since then, moreover, a lot has changed. In
addition to the Maastricht and subsequent Treaties conferring significant criminal law competence
on the Union, there has also been a significant development of the European Court of Justice’s case
law on specific areas of criminal law. These make it possible to say that European Union (EU)
criminal law has turned into a major field of study. The recently published book, The Court of
Justice and European Criminal Law: Leading Cases in a Contextual Analysis, aims to shed light on
some of the most important judgments that have marked the history of EU criminal law to date.
The book in particular addresses the following important topics: the duty of consistent inter-
pretation (Kolpinghuis Nijmegen [1987] and Pupino [2005]); the principle of legality (Berlusconi
New Journal of European Criminal Law
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