The books explore the European Union's judicial and legislative approach to deprivation of liberty. It examines the Union's institutional framework to assess the impact of the collapse of the pillars-based structure and of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The books provide a critical analysis of the EU approach to the question of fundamental rights which, the author argues, constitutes the core of the relationship between public powers and personal liberty. These rights include: the principle of proportionality; the principle of legality and proportionality of penalties; right to liberty;...

This book traces the history of the EU competence, EU policy discourse and EU legislation in the field of criminalisation from Maastricht until the present day. It asks ’Why EU Criminal Law?’ looking at what rationales the Treaty, policy document and legislation put forth when deciding whether a certain behaviour should be a criminal offence. To interpret the EU approach to criminalisation, it relies on both modern and post-modern theoretical frameworks on the legitimacy of criminal law, read jointly with the theories on the functions of EU harmonisation of national law. The book...

This book explores the external dimension of the ambitious EU policy on human trafficking. Through this policy the EU institutions and Member States promote the eradication of human trafficking and support, to that end, cooperation with their partners, being third States or international organisations. Analysing the unilateral and multilateral mechanisms the EU uses to achieve these aims, the book questions whether the EU’s external response to human trafficking addresses it in all its dimensions, and whether it does so in a coherent way. As a case study, the book explores the...

What impact has the evolution and proliferation of surveillance in the digital age had on fundamental rights? This important collection offers a critical assessment from a European, transatlantic and global perspective. It tracks four key dimensions: digitalisation, privatisation, de-politicisation/de-legalisation and globalisation. It sets out the legal and policy demands that recourse to ‘the digital’ has imposed. Exploring the question across key sectors, it looks at privatisation through the prism of those demands on the private sector to co-operate with the state’s security needs....