What Role for Legal Certainty in Criminal Law Within the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice in the EU?

Abstract

The article analyses the current position of legal certainty within the area of freedom, security and justice, and more specifically in EU criminal law. The current legal status of EU criminal law is first briefly presented. Thereafter the area and its present status are described, as is the concept of legal certainty within the area. The characteristics of EU criminal law are focused on, especially in relation to the nature of a European criminal justice ‘system’, which demonstrates why the EU is different as compared to the Member States. This difference especially affects legal certainty and the new legislative initiatives. To exemplify legal certainty, four examples from EU criminal law are chosen. These are a) mutual recognition in relation to human rights, b) minimum procedural rights, c) the position of the victim, which quite recently has been added to the EU criminal law field and d) the possible European public prosecutor’s office, where focus is laid on judicial review from a legal certainty point of view. These four examples are chosen due to their exemplification of how the EU within the area of freedom, security and justice perceives legal certainty and what is currently considered important for this. In the final chapter, some concluding remarks are made to sum up the situation.