Book Review: The European Union as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/20322844211006283 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
recommended reading for all academics and practitioners with an interest in extradition
proceedings.
The European Union as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, Maria Fletcher, Ester Herlin-Karnell and
Claudio Matera (eds.) (London: Routledge, 2017), ISBN 9781138828575, 536 pp., £ 125
Reviewed by: Elaine Fahey, City University of London, UK
DOI: 10.1177/20322844211006283
The European Union as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice represents a very timely in-
tervention in the field as edited by Maria Fletcher, Ester Herlin-Karnell and Claudio Matera. The
book comprises a very large number of distinguished scholars engaging in analysis of key issues in
the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) of the European Union (EU). It encompasses
a general first part, followed by a part on EU criminal law and a part on EU border controls,
immigration and asylum paradigms. It also comprises a Part IV on civil law cooperation, Part Von
the external dimension and impacts of the AFSJ and a final Part VI on the legal challenges of the
network governance within the AFSJ. The book thus comprises 19 chapters of immense significance
for the study of the AFSJ and symbolises very clearly since its publication in 2017 in hardback the
extraordinary growth of the AFSJ.
The AFSJ is a study in evolution of the EU as it broadens and deepens, and the emphasis upon, by
a large range of contributors, fundamental rights is very telling. It remains a very interesting case in
point, the humanisation and individualisation of rights, and their complex placement within the
AFSJ as a space. Moreover, it is a curious question of nomenclature and denomination where
political scientists largely do not focus upon the AFSJ and instead focus upon Justice and Home
Affairs. It is also interesting to see so many distinguished legal scholars focusing in broad measure
up on the larger policy space. The AFSJ has continued to have a very broad number of interesting
initiatives, for example the significant range of human rights for the individual in criminal procedure
after the Treaty of Lisbon, as Chapter 8 ‘Legislating for human rights after Lisbon: the trans-
formative effect of EU measures on the rights of the individual in criminal procedure’by Valsamis
Mitsilegas outlines, or the European Public Prosecutor for a certain number of EU Member States,
as Gerard Conway outlines in Chapter 7, entitled ‘The future of a European Public Prosecutor in the
AFSJ’.
Several scholars are much more concerned about the impact upon individual rights and the
humanisation of the AFSJ, for example Dorota Leczykiewicz in Chapter 4 ‘Human rights and the
AFSJ’, Anneli Albi in Chapter 6 ‘The European Arrest Warrant, constitutional rights and the
changing legal thinking: values once recognised lost in transition to the EU level?‘. The vast
majority of authors describe very imperfect regulatory and policy spaces where individual rights
come in conflict with much of institutional challenges, for example: as to Europol, the European
Police College, the Judicial Cooperation Unit of the EU (Eurojust) and the European Public
Prosecutor’sOffice, examined in Chapter 17 (entitled ‘Where does Eurojust lie in the constitutional
architecture of the AFSJ?’by Irene Wieczorek), regarding Frontex in Chapter 9 ‘Frontex and the
European system of border guards: The future of European border management’by Jorrit Rijpma,
and as to the Common European Asylum System in Chapter 11 ‘The Common European Asylum
496 New Journal of European Criminal Law 12(3)
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