Harmonisation of Criminal Justice and Participatory Rights in Criminal Proceedings. New Developments in EU Law After the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract

We have anticipated that the development of a broad participatory understanding of criminal proceedings by the Strasbourg case-law has influenced the evolution of EU law in criminal matters over the last two decades. The focus on defence rights as an engine of a fair criminal justice had already followed the harmonisation process of criminal procedure law that occurred under the former Third Pillar in the field of transnational cooperation among member states. Moreover, EU institutions were certainly also aware of the need to strengthen the defence rights in domestic criminal proceedings in the middle of the last decade, as the European Commission launched the proposal of a Framework Decision on certain procedural rights in criminal proceedings throughout the European Union. Alongside specific aspects that constituted the necessary conditions for the active involvement of private parties in criminal proceedings, this proposal, for example, explicitly focused on the right to interpretation, which, in the light of the requirements set forth by the European Convention, must be of such quality as to enable the defendant’s effective participation in criminal trials. During the legislative procedure, however, this proposal faced enormous difficulties and was never adopted.