*** SOPHIE BOT: Le mandat d'arrêt européen. Editions Larcier (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480713 - Fax: 5480714 - email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.larcier.com ). "Faculté de Droit, d'Economie et de Finance de l'Université de Luxembourg" series. 2009, 724 pp, €97. ISBN 978-2-8044-1664-5.
Based on a 2008 doctoral thesis in public law for the 'Université d'Avignon et des Pays du Vaucluse,' this is certainly not ivory tower science disconnected from the real world because Sophie Bot worked as a legal assistant at the Montpellier Appeals Court in France, where she was responsible for cooperation over legal matters. In the preface, Prof. Jörg Gerkrath (professor of European law at Luxembourg University) explains that this enabled her to "carry out academic research without losing sight of the concrete applications" of her subject, meaning that her research is a "genuine thesis" shedding perfect light on the new European penal cooperation mechanism, the European arrest warrant "in the spirit of assessing an emerging European penal policy".
The author examines four areas - mutual recognition, resistance from Member States that want to keep sovereignty over penal issues, the role of fundamental rights and the protection of fundamental rights in legal systems. Given that state sovereignty and the protection of fundamental rights are the two main problems that seem to arise with the European arrest warrant, they are the subject of the first two sections of the book. In the first section, on judicial cooperation faced with state authority o penal matters, Sophie Bot starts by analysing mutual recognition, the "cornerstone of the area of freedom, security and justice," of which the European arrest warrant is the first practical application in the penal domain, replacing extradition (a political decision) with a judicial decision. She looks at the "resurgence of state sovereignty" and the way that some Member States annoyed the European Commission by taking liberties with the spirit of the European arrest warrant decision when transposing it into their domestic legal system. The author is optimistic, however, that the judicial authorities do actually want to cooperate and make proper use of the European arrest warrant - although, as Prof. Gerkrath points out, this is "no doubt true of the French or Belgian authorities, but less so in Ireland and the United Kingdom, where the judicial authorities demand a lot of extra information before they will agree to carry out an arrest". There is then a chapter on how the European arrest warrant is subject to control by national supreme courts and the European Court of Justice, which leads smoothly on to the second part of the book, where judicial cooperation is examined in the light of fundamental rights. The preface-writer explains that it is important to ensure that the European arrest warrant does not serve to destroy civil liberties.
At the end of her rigorous and exhaustive scientific investigation, Sophie Bot concludes that "the adoption and implementation of the European arrest warrant have made the European penal area a fact of daily life," and the principle of mutual recognition, borrowed from Single Market law, fully deserves its description as a "cornerstone of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice," with national judges ("the judges of the Union of common law") working to ensure that a "common judicial culture" is gradually set up. She points out that the European arrest warrant "shows itself to be a mechanism that grants special protection to the fundamental rights of the person concerned" but at the same time, some Member States are reluctant to join in and are making use of fundamental rights as a "final bastion against integrationist attacks from EU law". The fact that the European Court of Justice has been asked not to get involved in cooperation over penal matters is a further sign of this, a sign that the Lisbon Treaty will correct (but not to sufficiently). In the same spirit, by demolishing the pillar-structure of the European Union, the Lisbon Treaty that is hanging on the goodwill of the Irish at present will have the beneficial effect of ensuring that the question of the EU's competence over penal issues will no longer be raised, not to mention the fact that qualified majority decision-making will become the rule within the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. The general rule, that is, with a few exceptions. When it comes to turning Eurojust into a European Prosecutor's Office, for example, the Council of Ministers will make have to reach a unanimous decision and there will therefore be the risk of a veto, much to the author's chagrin. Sophie Bot argues that the "introduction of a European Prosecutor's Office coordinating the work " of players like Europol, Eurojust, the EU's anti-fraud office and common investigation teams, "and also leading the investigations in the Member States and pursuing those alleged to have committed European crimes, is a vital stage in the process of making the EU's action in penal affairs effective and coherent". To sum up, a scientific work resolutely committed to 'more Europe'!
Pierre Bouvier
*** GISELE VERNIMMEN-VAN TIGGELEN, LAURA SURANO, ANNE WEYEMBERGH (Eds.): The future of mutual recognition in criminal matters in the European Union / L'avenir de la reconnaissance mutuelle en matière pénale dans l'Union Européenne. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503799 - Fax: 6503794 - email: editions@admin.ulb.ac.be - Internet: http://www.editions-universite-bruxelles.be ). 2009, 603 pp. ISBN 978-2-800-41452-2.
Based on research commissioned from the 'Université Libre de Bruxelles' by the European Commission and carried out with the help of the Eclan academic circle, this book looks at mutual cooperation in criminal matters between EU Member States and more specifically at mutual recognition using the mechanisms set up to this end under the third 'pillar' of the EU that is due to disappear if the Lisbon Treaty comes into force. Since the Tampere European Summit, these mechanisms have been assuming a dominant role in Member States' criminal justice systems. They require a lot of work at national level because legal systems have to be adapted to fit the EU mechanisms. The essays by eminent academics specialising in EU issues and EU law identify the tangible problems encountered by the Member States in transposing EU laws, going back as far as the negotiations of the said mechanisms at the EU Council of Ministers. The aim is to draw lessons that can be learnt from the first years of application of these laws by the judicial authorities. The authors examine the situation in twenty-two Member States, looking at how the countries view mutual recognition and transpose it into their legal systems The book goes on to assess the various implementation methods and the problems encountered in the process, and considers to what extent the public is aware of mutual recognition. The book includes a study of the future of the concept in the EU that draws up a balance sheet of relevant rules and suggests ways that EU27 cooperation might be boosted.
(NDu)
*** PETRA AIGNER: Migration and Politics. Leadership and Legitimacy in Austria. Peter Lang (32 Hochfeldstrasse, Postfach 746, CH-3000 Berne 9, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2008, 274 pp, €44. ISBN 978-3-03910-921-0.
Deliberately distancing herself from the current debate over the introduction of a common immigration policy in the European Union, this book's author has selected a more focussed angle of study, looking at the situation in Austria alone. What do Austrian political parties say about immigration? How do government policies impact at local level? To what extent are ordinary Austrians involved? Do Austrians' ideas match those of the parties they vote for? These interconnected questions cover the whole gamut of Austrians' views on immigration. The author's answers will help readers get an idea of the sheer complexity of the debate. Using semi-structured interviews, study of parliamentary debate and the manifestos of the various political parties, Petra Aigner, a member of the sociology department of Trinity College Dublin, analyses the discourse against the backdrop of Weber's theory of the legitimisation of power, expanding upon the theory. A well-rounded work which, despite distancing itself from European issues, paves the way for research comparing the situation with other countries.
(TBa)
*** Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights - Annuaire de la Convention européenne des Droits de l'Homme. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (Brill, P. O. Box 9000, 2300 PA Leiden, Netherlands. Tel: 31-71) 5353500 - Fax: 5317532 - Internet: http://www.brill.nl ). "Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights" series, No. 50. 2008, 750 pp. ISBN 978-90-04-17485-6.
This Yearbook published by the Council of Europe monitors changes in the European Convention on Human Rights. In the fiftieth issue, readers will find all the information they might desire about the European Court of Human Rights' elected judges and rulings, new member countries and ratifications, Committee of Ministers' resolutions and all other areas of Council of Europe work on human rights in 2007.
(TBa)
*** SORAYA NOUR (Ed.): The Minority Issue: Law and the Crisis of Representation. Editions Duncker & Humbolt (Postfach 41 03 29, D-12113, Berlin. Fax: (49-30) 79000631 - Internet: http: //http://www.duncker-humbolt.de ). "Beiträge zur Politischen Wissenschaft" series, No. 153. 2009,368 pp. ISBN 978-3-428-12742-9.
The essays in this book are based on the work of legal expert Hans Kelsen, who criticised the concept of democracy in 1925 for being based on the 'fiction of representation'. He argued that by giving people the political freedom and therefore the ability to formulate their own laws, democracy means that while the majority is free, the minority is not. The problem of minorities has always existed in the history of nations. Minorities were often the subject of repression or even genocide. In the beginning, they were religious (in the Middle Ages) but later with the creation of nations cultural and ethnic minorities arrived on the scene. The creation of the League of Nations and then the United Nations, and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are examples of some of the attempts to protect or at least acknowledge the existence of minorities, but these initiatives have always clashed with the clear reluctance of countries to give too great an importance to minorities, fearing the consequences at home of such action - the case of Brittany in France or Ireland for the UK are clear examples of this. Luckily, times are changing and, in Europe at least, ever greater attention is being paid to minorities in several countries' public law. Personal and territorial autonomy has become institutionalised, and linguistic minorities tend to be accepted, at the regional level at least. Looking at the historical development of democracy from the viewpoint of minorities, the book's essays try to comprehend how democracies deal with the minorities in their midst and how the minorities participate in the formation of political will. How was it (and is it) possible for minorities to be seen as enemies? What mechanisms turn social discrimination against minorities into acts of violence? These two key questions are examined in the book. The authors are academics specialising in politics, social sciences or philosophy. They go on to examine the principle of representation against the ideas of Kant, Hegel, Tocqueville and Taylor in order to discern potential ways of getting minorities more involved in the democratic process.
(NDu)
*** Migration. International Organization for Migration (Publication Unit, 17 route des Morillons, PO Box 71, CH-Geneva 19. Tel: (41-22) 7179111 - Fax: 7986150 - email: publications@iom.int - Internet: http://www.iom.int ). 2009, 28 pp.
The summer issue of this bi-yearly newsletter opens with an editorial in which the director genial of the International Organisation for Migration, William Lacy Swing, asks the West to ensure the economic crisis does not give rise to a crisis for migrants. He argues that "migration is a structural part of globalisation" and industrialised countries cannot afford to forget that they will need more immigrants in the future. The booklet also looks at the battle against racism and xenophobia.
(MT)
*** GERARD VOISIN: Sécurité sur les routes d'Europe: la fin des contraventions impunies? Commission chargée 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 ).'Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale' series, No. 1483. 2009, 49 pp, €3.50. ISBN 978-2-11-125161-8.
This newsletter enthusiastically argues the case for the European Commission's draft directive to ensure motorists actually pay their fines and tickets, even when their vehicles are registered in other countries, and suggests ways of getting out of the current impasse due to differences in Member States' legal systems.
(MT)