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Dear Readers, The decision by the eucrim editors to dedicate this entire issue to data protection confirms that data protection is increasingly relevant and also at the heart of European criminal law. An area of freedom, security and justice without internal borders can only exist if the national police and judicial authorities are able to exchange information as needed to fulfil their tasks. The use and exchange of information relating to persons also requires a solid and consistent system of data protection, not least because of technological developments. The term “surveillance society” is often used as a metaphor for a…

Introduction – The Relevance and Importance of the Criminal Charge Question Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) asset freezing entails the suspension of access to financial assets of persons or organizations who and which are considered to be engaged in committing or facilitating the commission of terrorist acts. The listing-decisions that precede the asset freezes also entail the prohibition of making assets available to the target individual or organization. Doctrinally, asset freezes are temporary administrative law measures with preventive security purposes, issued non-judicially and not reliant on criminal standards such as a conviction or indictment and which can therefore be issued in…

Introduction The common approach to fight crime is to collect evidence, charge the defendant in a criminal trial and, if proven guilty, to impose criminal sanctions such as fines or imprisonment. Most legal systems also provide for the possibility to confiscate the proceeds of crime following a criminal conviction. As organised crime has evolved, attempts have been made by governments and international institutions to fight it through this traditional criminal law approach. In order to be better able to obtain a criminal conviction of organised criminals, the criminalisation of money laundering is perhaps the most known measure. However, the common…

The legal organization of Dutch environmental criminal law The penalization of environmental offences in the Netherlands differs from the penalization of classic offences such as murder or theft. Except for an occasional environmental offence in the Criminal Code and except for the applicability of, for example, forgery in environmental cases, penalization of environmental offences takes place via the Economic Offences Act. At the time that this Act was realized in 1950 its purpose was to protect the restoration of the economic order after the Second World War and it initially only comprised economic offences. From the seventies onwards the legislator…

The 2025 High-Level Forum on the Future of EU Criminal Justice, aimed at developing a shared vision for the Union’s future criminal-policy agenda, brought together over one hundred participants, including the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and the European Criminal Bar …

The surveillance of citizens by government agencies is an issue that can affect many areas of everyday life. It regularly provokes controversy, particularly in public discourse. Strikingly, in discussions about the existing powers of security authorities, their possible extension, or even the introduction of entirely …

ANOM was an undercover law enforcement operation in which the American FBI distributed encrypted mobile phones with a hidden backdoor, allowing authorities to monitor previously untraceable criminals’ communication in real time. Many details of the operation were kept confidential by law enforcement. The intelligence gathered …

The EncroChat investigation marks a turning point in European criminal justice, revealing unprecedented legal and technical challenges that arose from the hacking of encrypted communication devices (“cryptophones”). The operation originated in France and escalated with the deployment of Trojan-style malware, which enabled the collection of …

This article provides an overview of the key provisions of the Poland-Indonesia Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. The Treaty was signed on 19 September 2025 and opens a new chapter in the relationship between both countries with regard to combating crime. It …

The article examines the investigative role of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the procedural rights implications arising from its anti-fraud activities.