Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This first chapter introduces Volume II’s main topics. This volume sets out and analyses both the institutional arrangements for EU cooperation and the substantive law which has been adopted (and to some extent, which is under discussion) in the fields of policing, criminal law, and civil cooperation. The chapter outlines the contents of the rest of the volume. The four fields covered here are united by a series of four common and closely connected themes. First, a central issue in EU policing and criminal law is the balance between protection of human rights and civil liberties and the State interests in public order and security. A second theme, now largely of historical importance following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, is the complex and often controversial interaction and overlap between the supranational European Community legal order and the intergovernmental legal order of the EU’s ‘third pillar’ (as those legal orders were known before the Treaty of Lisbon came into force). The third theme is the continued dispute over the scope of the powers granted to the EU in the areas of policing, criminal, and civil cooperation law, because these issues are considered to be central to the sovereignty of each State, and because there has often been a great reluctance to amend the details of particular national laws. Finally, the fourth theme is the convoluted territorial scope of EU policing, criminal, and civil cooperation law, which has several elements.