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zaharova_galina_bw.jpg Galina Zaharova LL.M.

The Influence of the Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Case of Tsonyo Tsonev v. Bulgaria

The Application of the ne bis in idem Principle in Bulgaria in Cases of Administrative and Criminal Proceedings for the Same Illegal Act

10 March 2021 (updated 2 years, 11 months ago) // english

This case annotation on the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 14 January 2010 in Tsonyo Tsonev v. Bulgaria (№ 2 - application № 2376/03) reveals that the case entails several significant and sensitive issues of fundamental importance, greatly exceeding the dimensions of the specific legal dispute:
- The enforcement of the final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against Bulgaria;
- The application of the ne bis in idem rule;
- The interplay between criminal and administrative penal liability of the same person for the same act;
- The role of the interpretative activity of the General Assembly of the Criminal Chambers (GACC) of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) of the Republic of Bulgaria.
This article discusses these items and introduces the reader to the mechanisms in Bulgaria for following up ECtHR judgments, as well as a new approach to the application of … Read more

2018-Max_Planck_Herr_Wahl_1355_black white_Zuschnitt.jpg Thomas Wahl

Refusal of European Arrest Warrants Due to Fair Trial Infringements

Review of the CJEU’s Judgment in “LM” by National Courts in Europe

10 March 2021 (updated 2 years, 11 months ago) // english

One of the most controversially discussed and unresolved issues in extradition law, namely whether extradition can be denied because elements of a fair trial will not be ensured in the requesting (issuing) State, gained new momentum after the CJEU’s judgment in “LM” of 25 July 2018 (C-216/18 PPU). This judgment relates to the framework of the European Arrest Warrant – the surrender system established in the EU in 2002. After briefly classifying the problem doctrinally and discussing the approach taken by the ECtHR, the article explains the CJEU’s line of arguments in LM. The analysis focuses, in particular, on the necessary test phases that the executing judicial authority must carry out in order to find out possible fundamental rights breaches in the issuing EU Member State. The article then analyses the reviews of this judgment by national courts. The follow-up decision of the referring Irish court is compared with court … Read more

Grimaldi_Giuseppe_online.jpg Giuseppe Ruben Grimaldi

Independence of Public Prosecutors’ Offices

Recent Case Law of the CJEU on the European Arrest Warrant and its Impact on the EU Criminal Justice System

15 February 2021 (updated 2 years, 11 months ago) // english

The independence of the judiciary has been a recurrent issue in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in recent years. In particular, in 2019 and 2020, in a series of new cases concerning the status of national public prosecutors, the Court examined the level of independence necessary for public prosecutors to fall within the concept of an “issuing judicial authority” within the meaning of Article 6(1) of the Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant. After an exposition of these cases, this article seeks to investigate the impact of this case law on the EU criminal justice system. Crucially, it is argued that the new case law is likely to change the EAW dynamics that the Member States, especially those that have conferred upon their public prosecutors’ offices the power to issue EAWs, have been relying on so far and, as a consequence, the … Read more

Garamvölgyi_2021_SW.jpg Balázs Garamvölgyi / Ligeti_online-2021(002).jpg Prof. Dr. Katalin Ligeti / Ondrejova_Anna_2021_SW.jpg Dr. Anna Ondrejová / Dr. Margarete von Galen

Admissibility of Evidence in Criminal Proceedings in the EU

2 February 2021 (updated 3 years, 1 month ago) // english

With the increase in volume and importance of cross-border investigations in the EU, ensuring the admissibility of evidence gathered in another Member State at trial is crucial − both for efficient law enforcement and for the protection of fundamental rights. At present, the rules on the collection, use, and admissibility of evidence are left to the laws of national criminal procedure of the Member States. These differ extensively as to the collection, use, admissibility, and nullity of evidence and thereby act as an obstacle to the use of cross-border evidence. In order to overcome the present difficulties, this article argues in favour of a new legislative proposal based on Art. 82(2) subsection 2 TFEU laying down common rules for the admissibility and exclusion of evidence in criminal proceedings. The article starts with a short description of the problem and a summary of the current legal framework before turning to the … Read more

Kotzurek_Magdalena_online.jpg Magdalena Kotzurek

Die Richtlinie 2010/64/EU zum Dolmetschen und Übersetzen in Strafverfahren: Neues Qualitätssiegel oder verpasste Chance?

Zur Umsetzung in Deutschland, Polen und Spanien

5 January 2021 (updated 2 years, 11 months ago) // german

About ten years ago, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted Directive 2010/64/EU on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings. The Directive initially inspired high hopes, mainly because it explicitly addressed the issue of quality in interpretation and translation services. Its implementation in the EU Member States, however, has tended to be disheartening. Some even fear that current standards may be inferior to those that prevailed before the Directive was implemented. This article analyses the implementation of the Directive in Germany, Poland and Spain, and – taking the changes made to the relevant national legislation in 2013 (Germany and Poland) and 2015 (Spain) as a starting point – sheds light on early tendencies in the judicial interpretation of domestic law. It concludes that up to this day, neither Germany nor Poland nor Spain has fully complied with the Directive’s quality standards for interpretation … Read more