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Every year since 2004, European Day of Justice has been marked on or around 25 October, offering an opportunity to reflect on the importance of justice and the rule of law. European Day of Justice was originally the idea of the Council of Europe.

Since 2015, Member States must accept most civil judgments from other EU countries without reviewing their content (abolition of exequatur). This has raised concerns about the need for ensuring that civil proceedings across the EU conform to common minimum standards. The European Parliament is due to vote in July on a report requesting the Commission table a proposal for a directive on such standards, which might be a first step towards a European Code of Civil Procedure.

Oikeudellinen yhteistyö rikosoikeuden alalla perustuu tuomioiden ja oikeudellisten päätösten vastavuoroisen tunnustamisen periaatteeseen, ja siihen sisältyy jäsenvaltioiden lainsäädännön lähentämistä koskevia toimenpiteitä monella eri alalla. Lissabonin sopimus on tarjonnut vankemman perustan rikosoikeudellisen alueen kehittämiselle, ja sopimuksella on myös lisätty Euroopan parlamentin toimivaltaa.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, analyses the proposal for a Regulation establishing the EPPO. The evolution of the text is analysed through a comparison between the initial Commission proposal and the current version of the text (dated of 28 October 2016). The paper assesses whether the EPPO, as it is currently envisaged, would fit the objectives assigned to it, whether it ...

In 2013 the Commission proposed a directive protecting the rights of children in criminal proceedings, following the 2009 Roadmap for strengthening procedural rights of suspected or accused persons in criminal proceedings, as well as the 2011 EU Agenda for the Rights of the Child.

The Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG) has now published its December 2015 ruling in favour of a claimant who had lodged a constitutional complaint against the decision to allow his surrender to Italy on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the Italian authorities. In its ruling, the German Constitutional Court appears to be departing from its previous 'Solange' case law on the examination of EU acts against fundamental rights enshrined in the Basic Law (Grundgesetz).

Despite the presumption of innocence being guaranteed by international, EU and national laws, there are reports of repeated violations of this principle by EU Member States. The Commission seeks to address this problem with a proposal scheduled to be voted in plenary in January 2016.

The free movement of judgments in the European Area of Justice presupposes a high level of mutual trust between the judiciaries of the Member States. From the citizens' perspective, the key issue is the balancing of the fundamental rights of claimants and defendants, i.e. the right of access to justice (to pursue a claim) and the rights of the defence. Mutual trust in judiciaries can be built in various ways. First of all, through the creation of uniform European procedures in the form of optional ...

Over the last decades, the European Union has developed a series of ad hoc administrative procedures for the direct implementation of its rules in a number of areas - such as competition policy, trade policy, sate aids, access to EU documents, the EU civil service - , which resulted in a fragmented body of rules, whether in the form of law or soft law. The need to depart from this sector-specific approach to ensure consistent EU administrative procedures has therefore started to be debated in the ...

Directive 2008/115/EC on common standards and procedures for returning illegally staying third-country nationals is part of the European Union's Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM). It sets out to protect returnees by establishing Schengen-wide standards and procedures for their return, based on EU and international fundamental rights and refugee-protection obligations. At the same time, it recognises the Member States' right to remove illegal stayers and safeguard their public policy ...