NCJ Number
163036
Journal
European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: (1995) Pages: 241-271
Date Published
1995
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This paper examines whether the European Community has any competence to adopt binding secondary law that obliges the Member States to provide for national criminal sanctions to be imposed for the breach of certain conduct rules.
Abstract
After analyzing the provisions of the treaties on European integration, the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, and the legislative practice of the Community, the author draws conclusions about the issue examined. He notes that the treaties on European integration leave the issue of criminal Community competence open. The Community Treaty neither stipulates nor excludes the applicability of its legal provisions in the area of criminal law. Still, it can be inferred from the case law that, provided that the Community has the necessary competence, regulations and directives are legal instruments suitable to prescribe national criminal sanctions. Recently, the legislative process has focused on supranational administrative (penal) sanctions while leaving criminal sanctions to the Member States. The author concludes that taking into account the particularities of the Treaty's competence system, a competence to prescribe national criminal sanctions cannot be ruled out altogether, at least as far as legal bases that provide for functional competence are concerned. Moreover, in accordance with the principle of uniform interpretation of Community law, a limitation of Community competence would have to be based on an autonomous Community law concept of "criminal sanctions," which has not yet been developed and which would still have to prove its practicality. 163 footnotes