Introduction The Lisbon Treaty aims at further developing an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, and the prevention and combating of crime is seen as one of the premises in order to strengthen the creation of such an area (Article 3 TEU). Member States are faced with crises of criminality in the era of globalisation: following economic and social trends, crime tends to assume a transnational dimension and a complex structure, and individual States cannot manage to deal with this phenomenon. Moreover, freedom of circulation within the EU can lead to further difficulties in fighting criminality. This… Read more

Before the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union of 1991, the cooperation in matters of internal security took place at the level of international relations between particular Member States − in the legal sense, outside the European Communities.1 The Treaty on European Union formed the architecture of European integration by attaching different forms of intergovernmental cooperation to Community policies. In this way, the three-pillar system was established. The cooperation between the EU Member States was described as “the cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs.” This area includes police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters… Read more

Introduction In the world of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the phenomenon of cloud computing is almost inescapable these days,1 and it seems to indicate the direction in which information infrastructures are moving. The concept, relatively simple, implies the migration of computing hardware, software infrastructures, and applications to third-party service providers’ data centres which, to end users, appear to exist somewhere “in the clouds” of cyberspace. Cloud computing is therefore a new way of delivering computing resources and services, a new segment of the overall ICT portfolio, rather than a new technology per se.2 The advantages of such a business… Read more

Over the last decade, the United States and the European Union have become increasingly important partners in combating terrorism and have further developed intertwined security interests. The signing of the so-called SWIFT II agreement1 on 28 June 2010 (approved by the European Parliament on 8 July 2010) raises, once again, issues concerning the potential conflict between data protection and security matters in the context of transatlantic cooperation.2 The aim of this instrument is “to make sure that designated providers of international financial payment messaging services (and primarily the company “Swift”) make available to the United States Department of the Treasury… Read more

The establishment of the area of freedom, security and justice has undeniably led to an increase in people becoming involved not only in criminal proceedings in a Member State other than that of their residence, but, even more so, in criminal proceedings that involve investigative and/or prosecutorial acts in multiple Member States. These so-called “multi-Member State criminal proceedings” have sparked awareness of the need to take measures to ensure adequate procedural rights in such situations. Without a doubt, criminal proceedings spread over multiple Member States run the risk of jeopardizing those procedural rights. It explains the origin of the current… Read more

I. Introduction Concerns about the excessive length of proceedings, especially in criminal cases, are not new, although they are still, unfortunately, very current. Already in the Roman law of Justinian, a two-year limit for the duration of criminal cases was established1. However, it was not until the mid-twentieth century when trial within a reasonable time was established as a fundamental right in Europe. As is well-known, Article 6.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) enshrined the right to trial within a reasonable time as part of the right to a "fair trial" and, according to Article 13, Member… Read more