European Criminal Law: An Integrative Approach (Ius Communitatis)

European criminal law deals with a multilayered patchwork of legislation and case law in which both national and European courts and other authorities and bodies play a role. It is a hybrid system with common notions and values which justifies its classification as a separate field of law. It is an evolving area of law; a field of law in transition. Most powers of the European Union, in the field of criminal law, are not exclusive, but jointly executed with the Member States. Norms have been formulated on the European level, with their implementation and enforcement taking place on the national level. This is, for instance, the case with prohibition of insider dealing. This book presents a coherent picture of the influence of EU law in national criminal law and criminal procedure, and it sketches the contours of the emerging European criminal justice system of the EU. Therefore, European criminal law is interpreted as a multilevel field of law in which the EU has normative influence on either substantive criminal law, on criminal procedure, or on the cooperation between Member States supplemented by the area in which the EU enforces criminal law directly. The book conveys the understanding of European criminal law as a field of law in which there is by definition an overlap between EU law and national law. To this end, it combines a top-down approach (perspective of the EU) with a unique bottom-up approach (perspective from the national criminal justice system) - whereas most books on European criminal law only deal with the top-down approach.