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Introduction
Publications
Publications (54)
The international validity of convictions can hardly be called a new topic, certainly not within a European Union context. Within the EU, mutual recognition of foreign convictions has been accepted as a leading principle. Therefore, it already gained considerable attention, both of the EU legislator and of legal scholars. However, analysis reveals...
This book elaborates on the rules governing the prosecution and sentencing of multi-offenders. The term ‘multi-offender’ is used for an offender that has committed a series of offences (either in one single act or in different acts); hence the addition of ‘multi’ in ‘multi-offender’. A crucial element thereto is that the whole series of offences –...
This book elaborates on the rules governing the prosecution and sentencing of multi-offenders. The term ‘multi-offender’ is used for an offender that has committed a series of offences (either in one single act or in different acts); hence the addition of ‘multi’ in ‘multi-offender’. A crucial element thereto is that the whole series of offences –...
In het verleden bleek reeds dat het maken van een afweging tussen verschillende conflicterende grondrechten een moeilijke opgave is en nagenoeg steeds aanleiding geeft tot heel wat rechtsonzekerheid. Voornamelijk de (strafrechtelijke) wisselwerking tussen de vrijheid van meningsuiting en het non-discriminatiebeginsel is regelmatig het voorwerp van...
The European freedom of movement has led to an increase of criminal cases with a cross-border element. Offenders can easily commit multiple offences on the territory of different Member States or can easily move from one Member State to another after having committed an offence. This might result in some proportionality concerns, since being prosec...
Pursuant to the so-called American travel ban, nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen were denied access to US territory. Consequently airline companies are performing additional checks at the check-in in order to avoid allowing passengers on board who are not in the possession of the required travelling documents to be allowed into t...
Decisions on criminal responsibility for political hate speech are politically very sensitive in Belgium. Three discussion points are presented in this contribution to structure the debate and formulate suggestions for legislative changes. Firstly, the general rule that political decision-makers are inviolable for the opinions they express is not a...
Questions on the criminal liability of political decision-makers for decisions relating to the construction of a bridge are almost automatically qualified as ‘an opinion expressed within the exercise of the duties of the political decision maker’ in the sense of the constitutional inviolability provisions. After all, no member of either House (be i...
Criminal justice researchers are increasingly confronted with research questions that require them to use ‘foreign information’ in their analyses. Though it is generally accepted that working with foreign information is challenging, several authors pointed to the lack of serious recent work on comparative methodology. Many researchers therefore avo...
The EU has recently mooted the possibility of harmonising minimum penalties. ‘Minimum criminal penalties’ refers to the lowest sanction available for a judge in a concrete case. Calculating the actual penalty involves legal mechanisms that might mitigate that penalty. Comparative analysis reveals that a distinction needs to be made
between minimum...
Abstract
Background: Criminal justice researchers are increasingly confronted with research questions that require them to
use ‘foreign information’ in their analyses. Though it is generally accepted that working with foreign information is
challenging, several authors pointed to the lack of serious recent work on comparative methodology. Many
rese...
With the adoption of the 2008 Framework Decision, the EU has awarded ‘the furthering of social rehabilitation’ a new position in the context of the transfer of prisoners. The novelty consists of it being the guiding principle for the “unconsented” transfer of prisoners. Unconsented transfer of prisoners to their home state is now possible if the se...
Ever since the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, the EU has had the competence to adjust national legislations via approximation instruments. In doing so, it has had the ability to influence the sanctions foreseen in the national criminal codes. The aim of this contribution is to review the scope of the EU's competence to approximate nation...
A comparison of the different EU criminal justice systems reveals a significant diversity in the legal frameworks surrounding corporate criminal liability. There are differences in the typology of legal persons that can be held reliable, differences in the attribution mechanisms and differences in the offences in general and more specifically the o...
EU criminal policy making is a relatively new policy domain and its credibility is said to be undermined by the lack of an evidence base. Because the EU claims to pursue evidence based policy making, this justifies reviewing the mechanisms put in place to that end. To properly evaluate the evidence base in EU criminal policy making, an assessment i...
The article reflects upon the potential of criminal law in protecting the environment. For that purpose, the author understands there are two challenges. Firstly, there is a lack of common understanding of the concepts related to the subject, such as no clear definition of what constitutes environment. Secondly, several issues also arise from the d...
This report reflects the outcome of the study on possible ways to enhance efficiency in the exchange of police records between the Member States by setting up a European Police Records Index System (EPRIS). Its main objective was to investigate the need and possible approaches, in particular the establishment of a European Police Records Index Syst...
Starting from the observation that criminal law is different in each of the member states as a result of which (1) what constitutes an offence in one member state does not necessarily constitute an offence in another member state, (2) even where offences are equally criminalised in all member states, the sanction levels may still vary and (3) more...
International cooperation in criminal matters in the European Union has grown exponentially over the past few decades. Importantly, there is a wide variety of authorities involved therein, rendering the traditional distinction between police and judicial cooperation outdated. Furthermore, its rapid growth exposed this policy field to inconsistencie...
Starting from the observation that criminal law is different in each of the member states as a result of which (1) what constitutes an offence in one member state does not necessarily constitute an offence in another member state, (2) even where offences are equally criminalised in all member states, the sanction levels may still vary and (3) more...
In order to develop an effective criminal justice response, it is crucial to truly understand the phenomena at hand. The analysis of the two phenomena singled out for this contribution – namely trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants – will be focussed at trying to understand the nature and extent of the involvement of organised criminal g...
Judicial cooperation and approximation play a central role in this contribu-tion. Approximation is interpreted in a very broad manner, encompassing both EU and non-EU instruments. Because judicial cooperation in itself is too vague and too abstract to be analysed, the scope was narrowed to two specific case studies. Both mutual recognition and Euro...