LEGAL FRAMEWORKS:The Lisbon Treaty provides a new legal framework for the development of policies in the area of policing and judicial co-operation in criminal matters, according to Eugene Regan SC.
Mr Regan is the editor of European Criminal Justice Post-Lisbon: An Irish Perspective, launched recently by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Susan Denham, and published by the Institute of International and European Affairs.
In his introduction to the book, Mr Regan said its publication was particularly opportune in the light of the forthcoming Irish presidency of the EU, the three- year review of Ireland’s opt-out from EU criminal law and policing measures due to take place, and recent decisions of the superior courts which highlighted inconsistencies in the European arrest warrant framework decision.
Contributors include Brian Purcell, the secretary general of the Department of Justice; Garda Commissioner Martin Callanan; former DPP James Hamilton; chief bureau officer of the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) Det Chief Supt Eugene Corcoran; Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes; former attorney general Paul Gallagher and the US attorney general, Eric H Holder.
Issues covered include the role played by Cab in the establishment of the Camden Asset Recovery Interagency Network (Carin), which fosters international recognition of the principle of civil forfeiture of criminal assets (Cab is now seen as a model of best practice for Europe), and the importance of a partnership between the US and the EU in dealing with organised criminal networks and cyber crime, highlighted by Mr Holder.
Mr Hawkes will stress the risk to individual freedom and invasion of privacy resulting from inadequate data protection safeguards in legislation, and the importance of data protection in the context of policing activity and anti-terrorism measures.
Further details of the book are available from, and copies can be ordered on, iiea.com