Alternative Systems of Crime Control. National, Transnational, and International Dimensions

The typical trial-oriented systems of criminal justice that are primarily based on the strict application of substantive criminal law have reached their functional and logistical limits in most parts of the modern legal world. As a result, new sanction models, less formal, administrative, and discretionary case disposals, plea bargaining arrangements, and other alternative procedural and transitional justice mechanisms have emerged at unprecedented levels in national and international legal orders affiliated both with the civil law and the common law tradition. These normative constructs and practices aim at abbreviating, simplifying, or circumventing the conventional criminal investigation and prosecution. They seek to enhance the effectiveness of conflict resolution proceedings and to shift the focus of crime control from repression to prevention. The present volume explores these alternative, informal, preventive, and transitional types of criminal justice and the legitimacy of new sanction models in the global risk society from the perspective of national and international justice and by focusing on the special regimes of anti-terrorism measures and security law. The authors of the papers are experts and internationally acclaimed scholars in this field. Their research results were presented and discussed at an inter-national conference held on 26-27 January 2018 at Middle Temple in London, UK, which was organized by the School of Law of the Queen Mary University of London, the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg), and the European & International Criminal Law Institute (Athens)

Immigration and Privacy in the Law of the EU: The Case of Databases

PhD, 344ppThe past three decades have been marked by the proliferation of highly sophisticated pan-European databases processing a wide range of personal data collected by different categories of third-country nationals. At present, three databases are fully operational; the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), the Visa Information System (VIS) and Eurodac, which largely target ‘unwanted’ irregular migrants, visa applicants and applicants for international protection respectively. The momentum for immigration databases is currently high, as in addition to significant reforms to the legal regime of the existing schemes, the EU legislator envisages the setting up of an Entry/Exit System, as well as databases for residence permits, long-stay visas and travel authorisations. This thesis examines the privacy concerns raised by the establishment and operation of EU immigration databases. Rather than viewing information processing through the lens of EU data protection law, it is argued that the right to private life, as enshrined in Articles 7 EUCFR and 8 ECHR, provides more holistic protection to individuals. In this context, this thesis provides a typology of standards for compliance with privacy on the basis of the jurisprudence of the ECtHR and CJEU. Having set the theoretical foundations of the study, the legal framework of the aforementioned information systems is analysed and evaluated in light of the right to private life. It is submitted that the collection and further processing of everyday personal information and biometric data -which are sensitive in nature- constitutes a disproportionate form of surveillance of movement, which allows constructing profiles of third-country nationals, recreating their travel routes and eventually deterring and obstructing their mobility. Law enforcement access to these systems constitutes a separate limitation to privacy, which, albeit not taking place on a routine basis, poses grave proportionality concerns.Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) Department of Law QMU

Automated predictive threat detection after Ligue des Droits Humains

The Ligue des droits humains ruling regarding automated predictive threat detection has implications for the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) Regulation and the EU Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on combating online child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Both legal instruments entail the use of potentially self-learning algorithms, and are spiritual successors to the PNR Directive (the subject of Ligue des droits humains). </p

European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS): Border management, fundamental rights and data protection

PE 583.148info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Killing me Softly? Scrutinising the Role of Soft Law in Greece’s Response to COVID-19

Greece emerged as the EU's poster child in the fight against COVID-19 during the first few months of the pandemic. In this contribution, we assess Greece's use of soft regulation in its regulatory response to COVID-19. Using "acts of legislative content", which can be broadly conceptualised as softly adopted hard law, the Greek government largely achieved flexibility and simplified adoption procedures without having to resort to soft law per se. The role of soft law was limited - it complemented hard law rather than constituting the primary basis of COVID-19 restrictions - but not completely negligible. Soft law instruments regulated the processing of personal data, and was also pivotal in clarifying the criminal sanctioning of COVID-related rule violations. Greece's success in handling the first wave of the pandemic, while effective, was arguably unfair to asylum seekers who saw their right to apply for asylum curtailed, and their right to freedom of movement restricted when limitations on the rest of the population were lifted. With a second wave of infections currently in full swing, it is imperative to keep scrutinising regulatory responses to ensure that they place the health and dignity of every individual (whoever they might be) at their core and fully respect their fundamental rights