What is it about?
This article addresses the question of judicial review regarding the EPPO’s role as a prosecutor and attempts to answer two key questions: Does the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU open up space for judicial review of the EPPO’s role as a prosecutor? Which phase of pretrial proceedings may be suitable for reviewing decisions on the initiation of criminal investigations for the purpose of verifying the compliance of those decisions with the principle of mandatory prosecution?
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The starting point is the hypothesis that the EPPO’s decision to initiate an investigation really represents a decision on the initiation of criminal prosecution, and as such, it needs to be subject to judicial review. This hypothesis is substantiated by the right to effective judicial review enshrined in Article 47 of the Charter of fundametnal rights of the EU, the right to judicial review in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and an analysis of the principle of mandatory prosecution considering the impact of investigations initiated by the EPPO on the fundamental human rights of suspected persons.
Perspectives
Every criminal procedure, including procedures initiated by the EPPO, is repressive by nature. This fact itself largely depicts the character of investigation as an utterly repressive phase of the procedure in which the respect for human rights and the fundamental rights of the defence are challenged. Simply said, the state’s right to prosecute and to exercise its ius puniendi should not collide with the subjective right of citizens to be lawfully prosecuted. Such security can be provided only by criminal procedure in which the central place is reserved for the judicial review standard, which imposes the requirement that every restriction of an individual’s fundamental rights by the state shall be subject to judicial review. The EPPO is a European prosecuting body, and its decision on investigation initiation represents an act in relation to which the Charter grants citizens the right to judicial review thereof. From that moment, the accused person shall be granted the right to an efficient judicial review of the criminal prosecution.
Ante Novokmet
Sveuciliste J J Strossmayera u Osijeku
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The European public prosecutor’s office and the judicial review of criminal prosecution, New Journal of European Criminal Law, September 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/2032284417729934.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
