Suchen
Revision of Directive 2008/99/EC: Protection of the environment through criminal law
In December 2021, the European Commission proposed a revision of Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law. The proposal seeks to clarify some of the terms contained in the directive and includes an updated list of environmental crime offences, harmonised sanction types and levels, measures to strengthen international investigation and prosecution, improvements to the collection of statistical data, and measures to improve national enforcement chains. Ultimately ...
Understanding the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO)
It took over 20 years of discussion in various forums for the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) to come to fruition. Established in 2017 through a regulation adopted via enhanced cooperation, it followed an unsuccessful attempt to reach unanimity in the Council on a 2013 Commission proposal. The outcome of the protracted negotiations is a complex body with strong collegial elements. The EPPO is composed of two levels: the central level and the decentralised one. The Central Office, located ...
Environmental crime directive
This briefing provides an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the European Commission's impact assessment (IA) accompanying the above-mentioned proposal, which was submitted on 15 December 2021 and referred to the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI). Despite the lack of systematic statistical data, environmental, social and economic damage caused by environmental crimes has been widely documented. Directive 2008/99/EC (the Environmental Crime Directive, ECD) was ...
Holocaust denial in criminal law: Legal frameworks in selected EU Member States
The Holocaust ('Shoah' in Hebrew) – the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and mass murder of Jews, whom the Nazi regime and its collaborators sought to annihilate along with other persecuted groups, such as Roma and Sinti – took place in Europe. It is therefore not surprising that a trend to address negationism – i.e. unfounded theories questioning certain historical events – by means of criminal law, originated in Europe. With time, the scope of criminalisation has been extended to cover not ...
Revision of Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of environment through criminal law
Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law – the Environmental Crime Directive (ECD) – was aimed primarily at improving environmental protection by means of harmonised criminal legislation. Despite noticeable progress on setting up a common legal framework and the undisputed relevance of the directive, there are shortcomings with regard to the uncertain scope of application of the directive, the uneven system for sanctions and the fact that implementation is still ...
Künstliche Intelligenz im Strafrecht
Der Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in einer Vielzahl von Bereichen ist Gegenstand einer breiten Debatte auf EU-Ebene. Die Erarbeitung eines EU-Konzepts für KI ist eine der Prioritäten der Kommission im Hinblick auf den digitalen Wandel, wie der Vorschlag für ein Gesetz über künstliche Intelligenz veranschaulicht. Den enormen Möglichkeiten, die KI-Anwendungen eröffnen, stehen allerdings auch erhebliche Risiken für die Grundrechte der Menschen gegenüber. Die Tagesordnung der Oktober-I-Plenartagung ...
Bekämpfung von Umweltdelikten nach Unionsrecht: Unternehmerische Haftung in Zusammenhang mit Unternehmensfusionen und ‑übernahmen
TIn dieser Studie werden die Auswirkungen von Fusionen und Übernahmen auf Umwelthaftung und Umweltdelikte erörtert. Untersucht wird, ob die Umwelthaftung auf einen Rechtsnachfolger oder eine Muttergesellschaft übergeht. Daneben wird auch die Rolle der Unternehmen in der Richtlinie über den strafrechtlichen Schutz der Umwelt mit besonderem Augenmerk auf der Rechtsnachfolge von Unternehmen untersucht. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird dem Konzept des Ökozids gewidmet. Laut den Schlussfolgerungen der Studie ...
Diese ausführliche Studie wurde von der Fachabteilung Bürgerrechte und konstitutionelle Angelegenheiten des Europäischen Parlaments auf Ersuchen des Ausschusses für bürgerliche Freiheiten, Justiz und Inneres in Auftrag gegeben. In ihr werden die Auswirkungen künstlicher Intelligenz auf die Grundrechte im Bereich Strafverfolgung und Strafjustiz aus Sicht der Europäischen Union untersucht. Außerdem werden darin der geltende Rechtsrahmen (insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit dem Datenschutz) vorgestellt ...
Use of financial data for preventing and combatting serious crime
On 17 April 2018, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a directive intended to facilitate law enforcement authorities' access to and use of financial information held in other jurisdictions within the EU for investigations related to terrorism and other serious crime. The proposed directive would grant competent authorities direct access to bank account information contained in centralised registries set up in each Member State, according to the Fifth Anti-Money-Laundering Directive. The ...
LGBTI in Africa: Widespread discrimination against people with non-conforming sexual orientations and gender identities
Three out of five African countries have laws criminalising homosexuality and the public expression of sexual or gender behaviour that does not conform with heterosexual norms. These same laws even sometimes punish LGBTI (lesbian, gay, trans, intersex) rights advocacy. Some African countries have partly decriminalised LGBTI persons or given them better protection. However, across the continent – with the notable exception of South Africa – such persons are still far from fully enjoying the same rights ...