The Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice

Abstract

Abstract This chapter evaluates the European Union's competence and substantive rules relating to the area of freedom, security, and justice. The Lisbon Treaty has brought together, in Title V of Part Three of the TFEU, ('Area of freedom, security and justice') all competences of the Union in respect of visa, asylum, immigration, judicial cooperation in civil matters, and police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Through its policy in these fields, the Union legislature is to ensure an 'area of freedom, security and justice with respect for fundamental rights and the different legal systems and traditions of the Member States' (Article 67(1) TFEU). The cooperation between the Member States in the area of freedom, security, and justice is based on mutual trust, on the basis of which every Member State must assume, barring exceptional circumstances, that the other Member States respect Union law and fundamental rights. The chapter traces the steps by which the Member States have gradually agreed to have recourse to supranational decision-making in matters such as the entry and residence of third-country nationals, police cooperation, and judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.