The Italian criminal law system, unlike the systems in many other European countries, allows the defense to carry out defensive investigations on behalf of his/her client. In this contribution, the shortcomings of the recent European legislation on the matter are analyzed, as well as the issue of the validity in Italian criminal proceedings of defensive investigations conducted by the defense council abroad. The admissibility in the criminal case of defensive investigations conducted abroad by an Italian defense lawyer was, in fact, already rejected ten years ago by the Italian Court of Cassation. The Court stated that the official state instruments of international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters must be used if investigations are carried out abroad. The authors argue in this contribution that this position cannot be upheld in a unified Europe and deserves fundamental reconsideration. They also advocate a European solution of defensive investigations abroad – a possible … Read more

The article traces how Directive (EU) 2016/1919 on legal aid—adopted 26 Oct 2016—completed the 2009 Procedural Rights Roadmap. It recounts why “measure C” (access to a lawyer + legal aid) was split, the Commission’s 2013 proposal (initially focused on provisional legal aid), and the political split between “northern” states seeking flexibility/cost control and “southern” states/Parliament pushing broader coverage. After trilogues (2015–16), a compromise replaced “provisional” with legal aid, set a scope of “deprivation of liberty plus” (also covering mandatory-lawyer situations and key investigative acts), and anchored eligibility in combined means and merits tests, with a safety net guaranteeing aid when detention is decided or ongoing. The Directive also covers EAW proceedings, and adds rules on decisions, quality, and training. Member States must transpose by 25 May 2019.

The Commission’s proposal for a directive amending the fourth AML directive raises numerous issues concerning respect of the rights to privacy and to protection of personal data. The main challenges are related to the creation of central and public registries of beneficial ownership information and to the extension of the powers of the financial intelligence units concerning access to financial data. The latter is of utmost concern, as this new power of access to personal data is not balanced with explicit legal guarantees. Financial data, however, are private data deserving adequate protection.