European Criminal Law

Full course description

During this course we will focus on the influence of European Union law on national criminal law and criminal procedure. The goal of this course is to understand the indirect and direct influence of European norms on national substantive and procedural criminal norms; also the emerging of European criminal norms will be analysed. This course does not deal with issues of cooperation between the Member States, such as the European Arrest Warrant and Europol; those topics are the subjects of the bachelor course European Criminal Justice Area (LAW3012). In the first session, the students are familiarised with the field of European Criminal law by understanding the competence of the Union in this field, the obligation of the Member States and the interaction between European and criminal law in the context of European law enforcement. The second session deals with the influence of European law by criminal law and vice versa in the field of the four freedoms. In the following sessions we examine the emerging of European criminal norms of substantive and procedural criminal law. Further issues on the relation between criminal law, general principles of Union law and human rights are addressed. Special attention is paid to the enforcement of European law by national authorities and on the method of preliminary rulings in criminal law. During the tutorials, students are required to apply advance research and analytical skills such as writing ECJ preliminary reference questions (or answers) and conducting research on the implementing national legislation of European Criminal law instruments. Because of the content of the course, a good knowledge of European law and criminal law is required.