The Perils of the Europeanisation of Extradition Procedures in the EU: Mutuality, Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Guarantees

This article focuses at the main problems regarding the current application of EU extradition procedures in relation to the area of judicial cooperation in criminal matters. It introduces the ‘Europeanisation’ of extradition procedures through a discussion based on the continuity of the principle of mutual recognition from the EC Treaties to the EU Constitutional Treaty. The latest manifestation of this continuity is the introduction of the European Arrest Warrant (adopted on June 13, 20002) that is aimed to simplify the extradition procedures for suspected criminals within the territory of the European Union by creating a positive list of criminal areas. The author discusses the innovations introduced by the Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant (abolition of the test of dual criminality) and then focuses on two main problem areas based on the reaction of certain Member States: i) Compatibility with Constitutional Guarantees: where the author notices a change of attitude in the national courts from being eager to contest the constitutionality of EU Arrest Warrant implementation law to being more pragmatic about authorising the extradition of their own nationals ii) Compatibility with Human Rights: where the author argues that the principle of mutual recognition is not adequate for adjudicating interstate criminal cases when it operates in isolation. He therefore proposes the enforcement of mutual trust or ‘full faith and credit’ accompanied by the standards of procedural rights set out in the ECHR and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights