The evolution of European Union criminal law (1957-2012)

It was seen how it was precisely at the beginning of these transformations – in the 1970s
– that cooperation in criminal matters began to take place in the EC context albeit to a
very limited extent and in an indirect or secretive fashion. On the one hand, the
European legal order as merely complementary of national systems lacked the capacity
to seek enforcement of its provisions to the same extent as national legal orders. On the
other hand, the EC was in a privileged position to facilitate intergovernmental
cooperation amongst like-minded countries that were facing similar pressures from
crime. Hence, the EU was often constructed as a forum that facilitated the adoption of
solutions for these common perceived threats. 912 Nonetheless, at the same time, the EU’s
intervention in criminal matters was always deeply constrained by Member States’
reassertion of their own sovereign power and by the EU’s own limited institutional
framework. Hence, kept at the centre of these tensions, ECL’s nature has been a
changing and fragmented one.
Regardless, this thesis has shown that some coherence can already be found in ECL and
that its nature, despite remaining in transition, is beginning to acquire more defined
contours. It was shown how ECL is evolving today along two clear dynamics and how
its current shape is the culmination of incremental changes that have characterised the
field ever since its early origins. This has been reflected both in its institutional
arrangements and in its scope: ECL has moved from peripheral, informal and indirect
arrangements towards a supranational formalised position at the core of the EU project;
and has veered from an initial focus on matters of terrorism, drug trafficking, organised
crime and some EC policies only, to potentially any type of criminality today. It was
shown that this expansionist tendency was initially driven by two main rationales,
namely that of the fight against organised crime and the protection of EC interests and
policies. Through the development of these themes, ECL began to focus on Eurocrime—a
criminality with a complex structure affecting primarily public goods or goods
in the public sphere. These crimes reflect, to some extent, the nature of contemporary
societies where interactions are more volatile and entwined than before. Hence, at the
end of the 1990s, ECL presented itself with an identifiable scope and claim. However, it
was further seen that the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam (TEU(A)) and the
introduction of the principle of mutual recognition in criminal matters in 1999 deeply
transformed this state of affairs. On the one hand, whilst the rationales and focus built
thus far continued to be central to ECL and further developed, other themes began to
emerge, although to a more limited degree, such as the protection of victims’ right.
within the normal context of the criminal justice system see C. Gearty, Can Human Rights
Survive (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
912 See for example, chapter 2, section 3.
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