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The current position covers two projects, which can be combined.
1. Accountability and judicial control of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (1 year).
The proposed establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) raises many questions of accountability and judicial control. Given the scope of EPPO’s powers, effective judicial control is vital. Yet during the ongoing negotiations, draft provisions on judicial review have been changed several times. By consequence, the legal design of judicial control and its rationales remain unclear. This project addresses this problem from a comparative perspective. The goal is to design and perform a comparative analysis as to how other EU authorities with similar tasks in the area of law enforcement integrate judicial control into their design, as well as to indicate at which level (national/European) this can best be done. Examples can be found in the area of fisheries (EFCA), banking law (ECB), and competition law (DG Comp). What lessons do these areas offer for the EPPO?
2. Mutual recognition and admissibility of evidence (two years).
The Roadmap on defence rights has established a certain degree of harmonization in the area of criminal justice. However, despite a legal basis for that in article 82 TFEU, there have been no proposals on admissibility of evidence. The issue is dealt with in several, diverging ways in different instruments. This inherently means that big differences exist in cross-border criminal cases with respect to the legal protection of the individuals and the criteria for admissibility of evidence (including the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence). This leads to uncertainty. A comparative analysis of the different approaches and different legal systems seeks to identify the main problems and to offer solutions.
Content and aims of the RENFORCE Research Program
The program is based on two premises. The first relates to the linkage between national law and European Union law. The resulting legal order may be described as the shared or the integrated legal order. The second premise relates to another linkage: between regulation and enforcement. Based on these two premises, the aim of the research program is to address the following research question:
How may the optimal mix of shared regulation and enforcement of European policies be shaped in the light of effectiveness and in the light of underlying core values? What are the main principles, factors, conditions and components determining this given the interaction between European and national dimensions?
The set-up of the research program is essentially legal in nature, but seeks input and interplay with other academic disciplines as well. To that end, the research program includes reflection on methodology and the development of specific research methods to be applied in the research to be conducted.
The research program consists of 4 subthemes:
· Core Values of Shared Regulation and Enforcement in Europe
· The Policy Cycle and the Mix of Enforcement Regimes
· Main Players in Shared Regulation and Enforcement in Europe
· The Interplay between the European and National Legal Order
· A more detailed explanation of the program and its subthemes (in Dutch) can be obtained upon request.
At the core of the program lies a close multi-disciplinary dialogue between senior and junior researchers that are involved. The successful candidate will benefit from the mentorship of distinguished professors in the various areas of law and the academic environment based on a community that crosses the regular boundaries of the sub-disciplines of law. The RENFORCE Centre provides a lively, supportive and highly stimulating intellectual environment at one of the oldest Law Faculty’s of the Netherlands that builds on a strong reputation for high-standing legal research on the interplay between European law and national law.
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