*** DANIEL FLORE: Droit pénal européen. Les enjeux d'une justice pénale européenne. Editions Larcier (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480720 - fax: 5480722 - Email: info@strada.be - Internet: http://www.larcier.com ). “Europe(s)” series. 2009, 633 pp. €79. ISBN 978-2-8044-2706-1.
Daniel Flore is a senior Belgian civil servant and began his career at the Belgian Justice Department at a time when European cooperation in the criminal legal domain was non-existent. In May 1986, he was sent to The Hague to explain why Belgium did not intend to ratify the European extradition convention adopted by the Council of Europe in 1957. In 1993 he accompanied the Belgian Minister for Justice at the informal ministerial meeting presided by the latter and which gave a boost to the elaboration of two conventions that went even further than the regime planned in 1957. These were adopted in 1995 and 1996. In 2001, during the new Belgian presidency of the Council, Mr Flore negotiated the framework decision for the European arrest warrant, which, as from 1 January 2004, definitively replaced extradition within the European Union. This trajectory enables the author of this book to affirm that, “on a conceptual level, as on the legal level, what has been accomplished over 10 years in the criminal legal domain, constitutes a remarkable qualitative leap forward, with regard to what criminal legal law previously proposed”. Should we interpret this assessment, which serves as a red line in the book, as a suspicion of, “the protagonist's benevolence with regard to what has been achieved?” Perhaps, but this benevolence is also accompanied by the critical lucidity of a man who teaches European criminal law at the University of Liège, after having taught at Louvain. This teacher also, obviously, reveals, “without any complacency, the shortcomings, insufficiencies and contradictions”, which he identifies in the domain under examination. The balance sheet he subsequently draws up in this volume is credible from beginning to end.
On the basis of an approach that is both comprehensive and descriptive, the author sets about providing a picture of the pre-supposed concepts and choices that determine elaboration of standards explicitly or implicitly, as well as the coherency of the solutions that results from them. On no occasion does he attempt to conceal the shortcomings and contradictions created by the solutions. In the first part of the book, Daniel Flore succinctly depicts the way in which European criminal law has historically developed. He also concisely portrays the institutional framework that determines the shape of this law: the decision-making process, the legal instruments, jurisdictional control etc. In the second part of the book, he tackles the question of bringing national laws closer together and aims to assess, as far as is possible, how close this rapprochement has become in the Union and whether it can contribute to creating a genuine European legal system. He then tackles the meaty issue of cooperation between the authorities responsible for judicial affairs in member states (police co-operation is deliberately left out). Above all, he sets out to, “evaluate the significance of this leap forward” as represented by the, “adoption of the principle of mutual recognition of legal decisions in criminal law and legal cooperation” inside the Union. The last part of the book looks at developments, which according to the author, suggest the emergence of a genuine European criminal legal system, namely, that resulting from the, “ shift from inter-state logic” towards a really European approach: “no longer every individual state acting for itself or state acting for another, obviously in their mutual interest, but states working towards a common project - a criminal legal system on a European Union scale - backed up by European bodies such as Europol, Eurojust and, in the very near future, a European prosecutor's office”.
The author does have doubts in one particular area: although the development of European criminal law has until now responded to a logic based on making small steps forward and although these steps sometimes appeared, “more like dance steps rather than the assured assent of the mountain dweller continuing his ascent to the summit with determination”, it is indeed the emergence of a European criminal legal system that we are now witnessing. But why should we assume this? Quite simply because necessity is midwife to the law: in an effort to fight the different kinds of criminality, the transnational dimension must imperatively be taken into account in the general interest, which goes beyond the national remit and enters the common justice arena. Moreover, this raising of awareness in the shape of a Copernican revolution is currently taking place, affirms the author, even though he points out that, “this shift towards a European legal system still largely goes without being given any mention, unconsciously, perhaps, given the fact that criminal law is still so anchored in the perceived competency area of the sovereignty of member states or, unconsciously, as within the remit of the legislators as actors of the criminal justice system, as opposed to what we are observing in other areas of the social domain and law”. Each and every page in this book illustrates that an optimistic vision is everything but unreasonable for those who are able to interpret what is being said between the lines and in light of the potential opened up by the Lisbon Treaty.
Michel Theys
*** PHILIPPE ROBERT (Editor): Mesurer la délinquance en Europe. Comparer statistiques officielles et enquêtes. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - fax: 43258203 - Email: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.librairieharmattan.com ). “Logiques Sociales” series “Déviance et Société”. 2009, 166 pp, €17. ISBN 978-2-296-09875-6.
For a long time, studies on criminality have been prisoners to an administrative monopoly exercised in this area by the very actors of the criminal legal system, with the police in the forefront. There are now some alternative measures being added to this equation, which result from investigations made among the general population, for example, those that focus on victim-hood and insecurity or even investigations made a long time ago into criminality and deviancy, which the instigators chose not to publish but which now appear to be flourishing, in an effort to tackle juvenile delinquency and the consumption of prohibited products or violence at school. This expansion of the spectrum, however, can only be productive if we manage to provide a viable comparison of the different data. The two sociologists, Philippe Robert and Renée Zauberman subsequently argue in their introduction that every item of this statistical information is restricted by its own limitations. Hence, investigations into victim-hood based on samples of the general population are only useful for examples of non-fatal violence, theft, burglaries and damages against goods or persons, which have not been brought to the attention of the police. This book seeks to provide a comparison of the data collected from investigations among the general population and police statistics into criminality. Funded by the Commission's 6th Research and Development Framework Programme, this research was carried out by sociologists, criminologists and psychologists in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland.
(MT)
*** PHILIPPE ROBERT (Editor): L'évaluation des politiques de sécurité et de prévention de la délinquance en Europe. L'Harmattan (see address attached). “Logiques Sociales” series and the “Déviance et Société” series, 2009, 157 pp, €15.50. ISBN 978-2-296-09881-7.
Similarly to the previous book, this too is an extension of Commission funded research as part of the 6th Framework Programme for coordinating, “the assessment of deviancy, crime and prevention in Europe”. On this occasion, the work coordinated by the Groupe européen de recherches sur les normativités du Centre national (France) for scientific research, focused on the evaluation of security and prevention policies in Europe. In this case, it tackles an area beset with problems, as borne out by the fact that the national rapporteurs have obviously not succeeded in the countries under examination. Why is this so? The sociologist, Philippe Robert, explains in his introductory report that everyone sings the praises of evaluations but is wary of them. The decision-makers - political or administrative - would be delighted to hear that they are scientifically validated but all of them are afraid, as explained by Tim Hope, a professor in criminology at Keele University, that the policy on which its success is based and its reputation has been built is not as good as is generally asserted. The scientists are afraid of ridicule for having declared a programme effective but which ultimately turned out to be counter productive. They are also afraid of continually having their arms twisted by survey commissions that only allow a praise worthy language to penetrate its lexicon. Ultimately, all of the different protagonists, decision makers and researchers, have as much to win as they have to lose in the evaluation adventure, which perhaps explains the very real misgivings about working on a theme about which, everyone is, nonetheless, talking about. In practical terms, Philippe Robert begins with presenting the pros and cons involved in making assessments. He then demonstrates the different uses made of them in countries such as Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Wales, which have all been the subject of a specific report. Philippe Robert also illustrates how research can be used to the benefit of appearances in assessments without actually assuming the risks that this entails. Finally, evaluation criteria, preliminaries and know-how are assessed.
(MT)
*** DITA VOGEL: Stories and Reflections of Immigrant Activists in Europe. Peter Lang (1 Moostrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2009, 149 pp., €23.20. ISBN 978-3-631-58422-4.
Drawing from the Politis projects - interviews carried out among 63 foreign-born students and 176 immigrants in 24 European Union member states in 2005 - and the European Union funded WinAct, this book gives a selection of highly active first generation immigrant citizens a chance to speak about the responsibilities they have taken on in politics and civil society in their countries of adoption. This book consists of lengthy interviews and is more than 3000 pages long, which would have proved totally unreadable for ordinary mortals. In an effort to ensure that it is not just the researchers who have access to these testimonies (which in their eyes can be an inspiration to people from across the four corners of the continent), Dita Vogel, a researcher at the Hamburg Institute of International Economy, took the initiative of selecting around 40 of these interviews, with each of them providing a brief context of the interviewee but whilst protecting their anonymity. Some of them are quite astonishing: but why spend so much energy on a tiny section of the immigrant population, which obviously presents no problem at all to the host societies? Quite simply, as the author explains, because these highly pro-active immigrants, “can be part of the solution” by building bridges between indigenous and immigrant populations and acting as mediators and role models for opening the doors to the second-generation. These testimonies range from the Imam of Malta to the mayor of a Swedish community of Syrian origin. This is an intelligent book, which demands an intelligent interpretation, both intellectually and emotionally!
(MT)
*** SHAZIA CHOUDHRY, JONATHAN HERRING: European Human Rights and Family Law. Hart publishing (16C Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 - fax: 510710 - Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk - Internet: http: //http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). 2010, 442 pp. ISBN 978-1-84113-175-7
Until recently, family law in Europe was dominated by a rather utilitarian approach, particularly with regard to children's rights. The courts took the well-being of the child as the operative paradigm and firmly rejected any use of the language of rights. Discretion was the watchword and the concept of well-being, the focus. Nonetheless, in United Kingdom, the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights, by way of the Human Rights Act, demanded that family law now began to provide clear proceedings for tackling the different rights of family members. Although, until now, the courts have minimised or indeed ignored the demands and stipulations included in the Human Rights Act with regard to the legal machinery contained in the domain of family law, judges will no longer be able to judge these cases on the basis of exclusively utilitarian calculations with regard to what is in the best interest of the child and the family. This book, therefore sheds a little light on this domain and seeks to clarify the rights family members possess during these kind of decisions. After providing a detailed explanation of the European Convention on Human Rights and family law, the authors of this book then examine the Human Rights Act, the basis on which it is founded, its principles and implementation. By creating a debate throughout the book on the question of whether the utilitarian approach should be abandoned in this domain or simply adapted to these changes, the authors seek to identify the impact these changes have had on European jurisprudence. The book's academic strength will, above all, appeal to legal experts and those navigating the complex cartography of jurisprudence in European family law.
(NDu)
*** THIERRY MARIANI: Vers un régime d'asile européen commun. Commission des Affaires européennes de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 7 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40630033 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Rapport d'information" series, No. 2155. 2009, 34 pp, €3.50. ISBN 978-2-11-128179-0.
The French MP responsible for this Rapport d'information (information report) gives a very warm welcome to the proposal for a directive on minimum rules for taking in asylum seekers. Nonetheless, he points out that the debates that have arisen from this question prove that the distance between the different positions is still very significant with regard to the long-term common and viable asylum regime.
(MT)
*** THIERRY MARIANI: La création du bureau européen d'appui en matière d'asile. Commission des Affaires européennes de l'Assemblée nationale (see address attached). "Rapport d'information" series, No. 2063. 2009, 28 pp, €3.50. ISBN 978-2-11-125848-8.
In this information report, Thierry Mariani gives his full support to the setting up of the European Asylum Office, which will seek to provide valid solutions to cases of human suffering.
(MT)