Recent Developments in the Area of European Criminal Law
This contribution tries to highlight and scrutinize recent developments in the dynamic area of European criminal law at both the EC and EU level. In so doing the paper focuses on three judgments each providing new perspectives on, in particular, but not only, how far the Court of Justice is prepared to go in its role as integration activist; by identifying the principle of effectiveness as forming the leitmotif in the chase for constitutional evolution of European criminal law. The paper concludes, after also having discussed current legislative initiatives presented by the Commission, by asserting the need for caution and critical assessment.
The Question of 'Communautaire' Reasoning in the Third Pillar - The Judgment in Segi and Beyond
The aim of the present analysis is to explain why the notion of EU criminal law cannot simply be regarded as a Community policy among others. In doing so, this paper seeks to examine critically the principle of fidelity as the motor of the Union's cross-pillar integration path by focussing on the judgment of Segi as the starting point. More specifically, this contribution asks whether it is wise to extend such a loyalty principle into to the murky landscape of the third pillar in general. Moreover, this paper intends to confront (and recall) the famous EC effective enforcement discourse in the context of the third pillar and argues that one cannot envisage clear cut use of this enforcement doctrine outside its traditional setting, at least not without also paying attention to the accompanying theory of the `implementation imbalance' and the difficulties inherent in negative integration. This is why `loyalty creep' in EU criminal law as the Treaties currently stand is alarming and deserves to be not only discussed, but also scrutinized extensively.
The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice ten years on: Successes and future challenges under the Stockholm Programme. CEPS Paperbacks. June 2010
This book celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) by bringing together the views of key practitioners and policy-makers who have played an outstanding role in thinking about and shaping EU policies on freedom, security and justice. 
 
Ten years ago, the member states transferred competences to the EU for law and policy-making in the fields of immigration, asylum and border controls, and began the transfer process for criminal justice and policing. This decade of European cooperation on AFSJ policies has experienced very dynamic convergence, the enactment of a large body of European law and the setting-up of numerous EU agencies working in these domains. Such dynamism in policy-making has not been without challenges and vulnerabilities, however. As this collective volume shows, the main dilemmas that lie ahead relate to an effective (while more plural) institutional framework under the Treaty of Lisbon, stronger judicial scrutiny through a greater role for national courts and the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, better mechanisms for evaluating and monitoring the implementation of EU AFSJ law and a more solid fundamental rights strategy. The contributions in this volume address the progress achieved so far in these policy areas, identify the challenges for future European cooperation in the AFSJ and put forward possible paths for making more progress in the next generation of the EU’s AFSJ.