The development towards harmonization within criminal law in the European Union - A citizen's perspective

This article discusses the topic of the development towards harmonization within criminal law in the European Union as of October 2001. The efforts of harmonization in the field of criminal law between different countries, in general, constitute a form of its internationalization. This happens to be so, because criminal law is a branch of law mainly related to the enforcement of state power or in other words it belongs to the hard core of the internal state legislation. The operation of the Community in enacting national penal provisions and in formulating them in a specific form, is the result of the laxity of the Member States for an effective penal protection of its goods. If we move, from the primary level of the Community intervention in enacting national criminal legislation for the purpose of harmonization to the secondary level of the function of common coordinative organs for a harmonized implementation of penal repression related to certain crimes over the European Union, we have to refer mainly to the common European Police Office, the so-called Europol. For the development towards a European Criminal Law, which will protect but also respect the citizens of Europe, we need to have a wider scientific dialogue, which will describe the present situation and formulate guiding principles of the state of law. Such a dialogue should be initiated mainly by the organs of the European Union itself and it should not remain just an effort of a group of academics in Europe.

Journal/Publisher: European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Volume 9,

Publication type: Article

Number of pages/Page range: 239-263

Language/s (content): English

Date of publication: 02-01-01

Personal data

Full name Maria KAIAFA-GBANDI

Current occupation Member

University/Institution Aristotle University Thessaloniki

Address Panepistimioupolis

Postal code 54124 Thessaloni

Telephone 0030 2310 996497

Fax 0030 2310 996494

Email kaiafagb@law.auth.gr