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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…

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…

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…

Dear Reader, It is a pleasure for me to address the readership of the eucrim journal. This issue is focusing on evidence gathering and JITs (Joint Investigation Teams), a relatively new judicial cooperation instrument and a tool which will help us put many criminals behind bars. Cooperation is the key word in Europol’s activities. As one of several institutions fighting international crime within and beyond the borders of the EU, Europol is committed to working together with other law enforcement agencies in a spirit of mutual support and shared responsibility.Europol’s main goal in the coming years will be to use…

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…

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…

In 2013, the German Institute Taipei and the Taipei Representative Office in Germany reached a joint declaration on the transfer of convicted persons and on cooperation in the enforcement of criminal judgments (→ R. Riegel and F. Fülle, “Vollstreckungshilfe zwischen Deutschland und Taiwan auf neuer …

Dear Readers, This eucrim issue provides insights into various aspects of state surveillance, a subject that has long engaged both the public and the legal community. Rapid technological advances, political initiatives, and landmark rulings by the highest national and European courts have fueled this interest. Digitalisation and the (seemingly) boundless potential of artificial intelligence provide new opportunities for data mining and analysis that can be (mis-)used for the surveillance of citizens, with potentially unprecedented consequences for those targeted. Prominent examples of the potential impact of contemporary surveillance practices, based on the retrieval, transfer, and processing of personal data through forensic…

Introduction EU-US counter-terrorism cooperation has been an area of EU external relations with substantial growth in the recent past. The political momentum for such cooperation was boosted post-9/11 and resulted in the conclusion of a number of international agreements between the European Union and the United States. Concluded primarily under the third pillar, these agreements have been subject to considerable criticism in Europe, both in terms of democracy and legitimacy and in terms of substance and the compatibility of their content with fundamental rights. These issues are now due to be reviewed following the entry into force of the Lisbon…

Dear Readers, Aled Williams I am delighted to introduce this issue of eucrim, which is devoted to the external dimension of EU criminal justice. The importance of the topic is clear. A young woman stands on a street corner in an industrial town somewhere in the EU. She has been trafficked into the Union from a thousand kilometres outside its borders for sexual exploitation. She has a drug habit which feeds on cocaine shipped halfway across the world. Her exploiters channel the profits from her virtual slavery (and that of many others) through financial transactions that span the globe, corrupting…