International Law

Criminal Law, Evidence and Cross-Border Investigations: The Green Paper

By Bartolus

We've said it before ! EU criminal law is the big growth area.

Now the Commission has launched a green paper (COM (2009) 624 final) asking for comments on obtaining evidence in criminal matters from one member State to another and securing its admissibility.

You can consult it here.

The idea is to canvas opinion on an instrument going beyond the Council Framework Decision 2008/978/JHA of December 18th 2008 on the European Evidence warrant. In particular, the green paper states:

"Compared with the scope of application of the Framework Decision on the European Evidence Warrant, this new instrument would also cover evidence that ? although directly available ? does not already exist, such as statements from suspects or witnesses or information obtained in real time, such as interception of communications or monitoring of bank accounts. It would also include evidence that ? although already existing ? is not directly available without further investigation or examination, such as analyses of existing objects documents or data or obtaining bodily material, such as DNA samples or fingerprints. The present consultation is aimed at confirming the validity of this approach."

Full post as published by EU Law Blog on November 23, 2009 (boomark / email).