Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) have come a long way since they were envisioned almost a decade ago, and put within theoretical reach by the Convention of 29 May 2000 on mutual assistance in criminal matters between the Member States of the European Union.1 It is fair to say that they have evolved from an idea, viewed initially with a degree of skepticism by practitioners across the Member States, and are now used more frequently to enable faster and broader investigations. Naturally, there have been challenges along the way, and unfortunately often news of these challenges, rather than news of the… Read more

I. Introduction Established by Decision 1999/352 (EC, ECSC, Euratom) of the European Commission in order to strengthen the means of fraud prevention, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has been given the responsibility of conducting administrative anti-fraud investigations. The purpose of investigations is to collect the evidence needed to identify the facts so as to verify whether an irregularity, fraud, corruption or serious misconduct detrimental to the EU's financial interests has occurred. The aim of this essay is to offer an overview of the OLAF mechanism of collecting evidences and forwarding them to the prosecuting and investigative authorities of Member States… Read more

Difficulties in Setting Up Joint Investigation Teams The concept of joint investigation teams, as introduced by Article 13 of the EU Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 29 May 20001 (“the Convention”), was not entirely new.2 In essence, it allows information gathered by investigators from different EU Member States to be exchanged without making use of a mutual legal assistance request.3 Nevertheless, nine years later, and after the entering into force of this Convention in most Member States, most practitioners lack practical experience and even knowledge of this tool. The lack of joint investigation teams (“JITs”) being set… Read more

After the establishment of Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) in international treaties and the implementation of the rules on JITs into German law, JITs will become a more and more useful investigative tool for the law enforcement authorities in Germany within the repertoire of their investigative measures. The aim of this article is therefore to bring this new tool home to the practitioners and give them valuable advice on the conditions under which JITs may be established and how practical problems can be solved both as regards the phase when JITs are established (part II) and during their working phase (part… Read more

Introduction The problem of cooperation in gathering and sharing evidence between the EU Member States is not new and has been discussed widely during the last decade.1 The discussion touched upon the question of gathering evidence as well as the problem of admissibility of evidence gathered abroad. The aim of this paper is to shortly analyze the first aspect and to make some proposals for improving the cooperation. Present Situation The system of gathering evidence among EU Member States is still based on the Council of Europe Convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters 1959,2 supplemented by its additional protocol… Read more

Within a relatively short period of time, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has had the opportunity to address the issue of a transnational ne bis in idem principle in several cases in the EU, and a legislative proposal was also put forward on this matter.1 The increased attention paid to the transnational application of the ne bis in idem principle shows that the judicial authorities of the EU Member States are facing a growing number of cases that simultaneously involve several jurisdictions. The present article focuses on the ne bis in idem principle in the context of an Area… Read more