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

The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), adopted on 31st October 2003, entered into force on 14th December 2005. To date, 143 States have ratified the instrument. Most of the Member States of the European Union are State parties. UNCAC is the first international instrument that provides a comprehensive response towards tackling public and private corruption worldwide. The main purpose of the Convention is to combat important manifestations of corruption at the global level. Corruption affects all countries, but, in particular, presents a serious obstacle to economic and social development and undermines the work of the legal and administrative institutions… Read more

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