Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law

European law has a major influence on national criminal law and criminal procedure as well as on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. Most of these European requirements were established within the framework of the European Union and the Council of Europe. The body of regulations is complex and confusing, and it is very difficult for legal academics and practitioners to gain an overview of European criminal law.

Sanctioning provisions and requirements for the approximation of substantive criminal law are found at the supranational level in European Community law (Treaty Establishing the European Community, regulations, and guidelines) as well as at the intergovernmental level in European Union law (Treaty on European Union, framework decisions, and conventions). Furthermore, the body of regulations governing the transnational collaboration of law enforcement agencies, fashioned by numerous legal instruments of the EU and by conventions of the Council of Europe, is bewildering. To date, attempts to systematize the legal bases of the criminal law of the European Community, the Union, and international law have not been persuasive. A detailed and comprehensive discussion of European regulations is lacking.

Hence, the goal of this project is to create a scholarly classification of European criminal law and to explain the system and legal bases by means of a thorough, all-inclusive presentation. It is hoped that this presentation, which is created with the intention of facilitating the accessibility of this complex legal area, will prove to be useful to both academics and practitioners.

The following aspects of European criminal law are differentiated and presented: (1) European treaties and conventions; (2) the law of supranational sanctions and procedure; (3) harmonization of national (substantive) criminal law; (4) cooperation in criminal matters; (5) basic rights, legal protection, and criminal defense. The enumerated areas will include an analysis of and commentary on the individual norms of the European Communities, the European Union, and the Council of Europe that are relevant to criminal law. The legislative implementation of these norms in the EU Member States, especially in Germany and Austria, will likewise be studied. In addition, case law and literature will be assessed and, on this basis, individual problem areas will be scrutinized. One such area, namely, the competence of the European Community with regard to the harmonization of criminal law, will be examined on the basis of recent decisions of the European Court of Justice, which address the question of whether the European Community has the authority to issue criminal law requirements regarding the sanctioning of activities that damage the environment.

This comprehensive presentation is published jointly by C.H. Beck and Nomos in 2011. It is issued by the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law under the stewardship of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Sieber in collaboration with † Franz-Hermann Brüner (General Director of the European Anti-Fraud Office), Prof. Dr. Bernd von Heintschel-Heinegg (lawyer, University of Regensburg), and Prof. Dr. Helmut Satzger (Ordinarius at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich). In addition to Institute staff, contributors to the book include renowned German university professors as well as practitioners from German law enforcement agencies and EU institutions. The Institute is responsible for editing and coordinating the circa 60 contributions.