EUROPEAN CRIMINAL LAW

Knowledge and understanding
The course aims at providing students with the relevant knowledge of issues that just few years ago were considered of marginal importance for the criminal science and subject of the study by few experts. The course aims at a systematization of the European legislative and institutional data which became more and more relevant for the study of modern criminal law, in order to provide students with the necessary tools to carry out a reflection on the principles and dynamics that characterize the subject matter of the course.

Applying knowledge and understanding
The course, through the analisys of the EU legal interests, aims at providing students with the ability to analyse the most efficient strategies for judicial cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs in the light of Title VI of the TEU. The course also aims to provide students with the necessary skills for understanding the provisions of the "Constitution for Europe" and the new Treaty of Lisbon, in view of an analysis aimed at assessing the perspectives of a " European criminal law”.

Lectures ex cathedra and tutorials and working groups focused on the leading cases of the national andeuropean Courts.

Should teaching be carried out in mixed mode or remotely, it may be necessary to introduce changes with respect to previous statements, in line with the programme planned and outlined in the syllabus.

1. - General profiles of the relation between EU law and Criminal law. The principles of primacy and directeffect of EU.- The protection of fundamental rights.- The current absence of a penal system of the European Union. The traditional reasons : the democraticdeficit and the lack of an appropriate legal basis. Critical analysis of these observations.

2. - The indirect effects of EU law on national Criminal law, related to the the principle of primacy of EU.- The effects on the offences. The effects on the sanctions. The issue of the “malam partem effects” ofthe disapplication of criminal laws conflicting with EU law.

3. - The protection of the EU legal interests: a) Institutional legal interests b) the legal interests that arisefrom the legislative activity of the European Union.- The current techniques for protecting the interests of the European Union.- The system of administrative sanctions of the European Union and its perspectives.- Analysis of different types of community sanctions. The 'general principles' of the system of sanctionsand the EU Regulation 2988/95.- The national systems of penalties for the protection of EU legal interests. - The 'principle ofassimilation’. Shortcomings.- The obligations arising from EU legislation. The limits of such a model of protection. The perspectives ofthe harmonization of national criminal systems. The case law of the Court of Justice. The provisions of theTreaty of Lisbon.

4. – Judicial Cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs in accordance with the original provisionsof Title VI of the Treaty on European Union;- The historical evolution of the third pillar. The approximation of national legislations in the field oforganized and transnational crime. Judicial cooperation in criminal matters and Eurojust. The operationalresults. In particular: mutual recognition of judicial decisions. The European arrest warrant.

5. - The provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon. The elimination of the pillar structure, the protection offundamental rights, the area of freedom, security and justice, the approximation of substantive criminallaw of the Member States and the creation of a European criminal policy, the European PublicProsecutor’s Office and Eurojust, the protection of financial interests. The perspectives of a EU Criminal law

1) R. Sicurella, Diritto penale e competenze dell'Unione europea. Pag. 1-84, 149-256.

2) G. Grasso, Il Trattato di Lisbona e le nuove competenze penali dell’Unione Europea, in Studi in onore di Mario Romano, Napoli, 2011, vol. IV, pag. 2307-2350.

3) R. Sicurella, Questioni di metodo nella costruzione di una teoria delle competenze dell'Unione europea in materia penale", in Studi in onore di Mario Romano, Napoli, 2011, vol. IV, Pag. 2569-2644.

During the course some judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Courtof Human Rights will be analysed.