Taking Stock Databases And Systems Of Information Exchange In The Area Of Freedom Security And Justice

Privacy and data protection in police work and law enforcement cooperation has always been a challenging issue. Current developments in EU internal security policy, such as increased information sharing (which includes the exchange of personal data between European law enforcement agencies and judicial actors in the area of freedom, security and justice (Europol, Eurojust, Frontex and OLAF)) and the access of EU agencies, in particular Europol and Eurojust, to data stored in European information systems such as the SIS (II), VIS, CIS or Eurodac raise interesting questions regarding the balance between the rights of individuals and security interests. This book deals with the complexity of the relations between these actors and offers for the first time a comprehensive overview of the structures for information exchange in the area of freedom, security and justice and their compliance with data protection rules in this field.

This book examines the evolution towards increased supranational governance in the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). At the end of 2009, a successor programme to the Tampere and Hague Programmes was developed under the Swedish Presidency. Called the ‘Stockholm Programme’, it was adopted at a special EU Council Summit on 10-11 December 2009. The new agenda covers the period 2010-2014 and emphasises six areas of priority. In the context of these priorities, as well as the innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, this edited book analyses policy change in the AFSJ, especially as it has been affected by the rise of supranational governance in this domain. From police cooperation and crime fighting to border management and counter-terrorism, much has changed, and the EU has taken yet another step forward in the direction of supranational governance. However, the various contributions also highlight that there are still problems and challenges remaining for the AFSJ. Collectively, this book considers how consequential the Lisbon Treaty has been for the AFSJ, as well as how successful the EU has been in achieving its stated goals as expressed in the Stockholm Programme. Thus, this book makes a significant contribution to the scholarly investigation of the AFSJ, but also to the study of European integration in general. This book was published as a special issue of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

This volume in the series Swedish Studies in European Law, produced by the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies, focuses on EU criminal law and transnational police co-operation. Against the background of the most important changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty in the area of criminal law and police co-operation, this volume is divided into four main sections. Each section analyses some specific challenges. The first section includes a critical analysis of the boundaries of the new criminal law competencies, as well as some more general challenges for EU criminal law. Specific focus is set on the lawmaking process. The second section deals with EU criminal law and fundamental rights, in particular the protection of personal data and individual privacy. In this section, focus is on the implementation of EU law into national legal orders and the challenges that this process brings with it. The third section maps out specific challenges in transnational police co-operation, in particular, the important issue of sharing of information between law enforcement agencies and its potential impact on the protection of fundamental rights. In the fourth section, focus is shifted toward networks, horizontal agency and multi-level co-operation in a wider sense within the area of freedom, security and justice.

The use of extra-territorial intelligence is growing among security, border, and public agencies. Internationally, rapidly evolving efforts to tackle transnational crime entail the exchange of intelligence across jurisdictions and state borders as well as the 'linking' of law enforcement operations. This book provides a number of different perspectives from across Europe, Australasia and Canada to examine recent cooperation experiences and the challenges faced in practice. The book brings together scholars from a range of legal and criminological fields to examine the legal imperatives and social parameters that shape international police and justice cooperation and highlights the importance of both trust and clear legal rules to ensure effective cooperation. It focuses on areas where cooperation is now mandated, but where significant issues are raised, including the international and regional methods of information and intelligence exchange and challenges to human rights protection; the coordination of international and regional exchange of evidence, such as forensic bioinformation; police cooperation in international investigations and the added value of formalising investigative strategies across jurisdictions regionally and internationally and the operation, accountability and legitimacy of organisations and institutions of 'cooperation' in law enforcement and specific international policing 'missions'.

This book on privacy and data protection offers readers conceptual analysis as well as thoughtful discussion of issues, practices, and solutions. It features results of the seventh annual International Conference on Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection, CPDP 2014, held in Brussels January 2014. The book first examines profiling, a persistent core issue of data protection and privacy. It covers the emergence of profiling technologies, on-line behavioral tracking, and the impact of profiling on fundamental rights and values. Next, the book looks at preventing privacy risks and harms through impact assessments. It contains discussions on the tools and methodologies for impact assessments as well as case studies. The book then goes on to cover the purported trade-off between privacy and security, ways to support privacy and data protection, and the controversial right to be forgotten, which offers individuals a means to oppose the often persistent digital memory of the web. Written during the process of the fundamental revision of the current EU data protection law by the Data Protection Package proposed by the European Commission, this interdisciplinary book presents both daring and prospective approaches. It will serve as an insightful resource for readers with an interest in privacy and data protection.

Justice and Home Affairs is one of the fastest expanding areas of research in European Studies. The European response to security concerns such as terrorism, organised crime networks, and drug trafficking as well as to the challenge of managing migration flows are salient topics of interest to an increasing number of scholars of all disciplines, the media and general public. This handbook takes stock of policy development and academic research in relation to justice and home affairs and analyses the field in an unprecedented thematic depth. The book comprehensively investigates the field from the perspective of the three dimensions central to European integration: the sectoral (policies), the horizontal (states, regions) and the vertical (institutions, decision-making) dimensions. It also discusses the most important theoretical approaches used in this research area and provides the reader with a state of the art picture of the field. By adopting such a comprehensive and broad-based approach, the handbook is uniquely positioned to be an important referent for scholars, practitioners and students interested in the area of justice, home affairs and European politics.

EU Criminal Law is perhaps the fastest-growing area of EU law. It is also one of the most contested fields of EU action, covering measures which have a significant impact on the protection of fundamental rights and the relationship between the individual and the State, while at the same time presenting a challenge to State sovereignty in the field and potentially reconfiguring significantly the relationship between Member States and the EU. The book will examine in detail the main aspects of EU criminal law, in the light of these constitutional challenges. These include: the history and institutions of EU criminal law (including the evolution of the third pillar and its relationship with EC law); harmonisation in criminal law and procedure (with emphasis on competence questions); mutual recognition in criminal matters (including the operation of the European Arrest Warrant) and accompanying measures; action by EU bodies facilitating police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters (such as Europol, Eurojust and OLAF); the collection and exchange of personal data, in particular via EU databases and co-operation between law enforcement authorities; and the external dimension of EU action in criminal matters, including EU-US counter-terrorism co-operation. The analysis is forward-looking, taking into account the potential impact of the Lisbon Treaty on EU criminal law.