European arrest warrants and time-barred enforcement in the state of residence of the convicted person: Too much, too late!
| DOI | 10.1177/2032284420901781 |
| Author | F. Verbruggen,K. Verhesschen |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
European arrest warrants
and time-barred enforcement
in the state of residence of the
convicted person: Too much,
too late!
F. Verbruggen
Institute of Criminal Law, KU Leuven, Belgium
K. Verhesschen
Institute of Criminal Law, KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract
The principle of mutual recognition is considered ‘the cornerstone of judicial cooperation’ in
the European Union (hereafter EU). It requires Member States to recognise judicial decisions
of other Member States, thus enabling a swift administration of justice. Within the field of
criminal law, the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereafter CJEU) links this principle
explicitly to the prevention of impunity, most clearly in the Popławski decision (following
previous hints in Spajic or Petruhhin). It invokes this principle to oblige a Member State to
execute a European arrest warrant (hereafter EAW) issued against one of its residents when
the executing State cannot undertake to enforce the sentence itself due to, for instance, its
domestic rules on limitation periods. In doing so, the Court overlooks the fact that those
domestic rules may serve other fundamental interests and principles recognised by the EU
and the CJEU itself, s uch as social rehabi litation and leg al certainty. More over, a more
balanced approach to (non-)recognition could also contribute to a swift administration of
justice, namely as an incentive to the issuing State to avoid undue delays in the issuing of an
EAW. Many States believe that, once a certain amount of time has elapsed since the con-
viction, the enforcement of a criminal sanction will become unfair or even counterproductive.
The length of this period is proportionate to theseriousnessoftheconviction.AsEU-broad
harmonisation on the subject is unlikely in the short-run, mutual recognition should work
both ways if the requested person has significant ties to the executing State.
Corresponding author:
K. Verhesschen, Institute of Criminal Law, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
E-mail: katrien.verhesschen@kuleuven.be
New Journal of European Criminal Law
2020, Vol. 11(1) 40–53
ªThe Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/2032284420901781
njecl.sagepub.com
NJECL
NJECL
To continue reading
Request your trial