Free Gathering and movement of evidence in criminal matters in the EU. Thinking beyond borders, stri

Description

Over het boekThe landscape of cross-border evidence gathering in criminal matters in the EU has become blurred. Non-traditional actors, such as administrative authorities and intelligence services, have joined traditional judicial and law enforcement authorities in a domain which used to be looked upon as predominantly judicial cooperation territory. Criminal justice and administrative finalities run the risk of being constantly mixed up. This creates problems in light of the separation of powers, adequate legal and procedural protection in criminal matters and data protection.Gert Vermeulen believes that restoring the balance requires stepping away from traditional authority-based thinking and policy-making. He suggests to embrace criminal justice finality as the key normative marker for EU cross-border intelligence, information and evidence gathering and exchange in criminal matters. The traditional distinction between judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters can no longer be upheld, he concludes. He argues that the distinction is largely artificial, creates confusion and produces inconsistencies, thus hindering the establishment and further development of a coherent EU criminal law policy. Vermeulen also challenges the envisaged roll-out of the mutual recognition principle in the context of cross-border evidence gathering. He is in particular concerned that it would prompt an inacceptable burden upon criminal justice systems either financially or in terms of operational capacity. In order to systemically prevent admissibility problems of cross-border evidence in courts throughout the EU, he finally pleas for a free movement regime for evidence, based on common minimum procedural standards according to which it must have been gathered.Over de auteursProf. dr. Gert Vermeulen is professor of international and European criminal law at Ghent University, director of the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy IRCP and extraordinary professor of evidence law at Maastricht University.