Cross-border cooperation in the execution of sentences between the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium: an empirical and co
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Cross-border cooperation in the execution of sentences between the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium: an empirical and comparative legal study on the implementation of EU framework decisions 2008/909/JHA and 2008/947/JHA Robin Hofmann 1 & Hans Nelen 1 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This study aims at comparing legal practices in the execution of sentences within the framework of cross-border cooperation between The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, the implementation of the EU Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA on the transfer of prisoners and 2008/947/JHA on the mutual recognition of judgments and probation decisions in the three countries is analyzed. Interview data with legal practitioners suggest that social rehabilitation, consents of the convicted individuals and the actual place of living, play an important role in the initiations of transfers. Empirical evidence that both Framework Decisions are increasingly instrumentalized for migration control purposes, as the current scientific debate suggest, is weak in the three case countries. The relatively small numbers of transfers of prisoners and judgements show, that the transfer instrument is still not implemented to its full potential. This study exemplifies remaining challenges connected to the principle of mutual trust in the daily practice of cross-border legal cooperation within the EU. Keywords Comparative criminal law . Penology . Cross-border cooperation . Sentencing .
Crimmigration . Prison population . Prisoner transfer
* Robin Hofmann [email protected]
1
Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Bouillonstraat 1-3, 6211 LHMaastricht, The Netherlands
Hofmann R., Nelen H.
Introduction Cross-border cooperation in criminal legal matters between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany has a long tradition. This is particularly the case within the border region of these three neighbouring countries, also referred to as the Meuse-Rhine Euregion, one of Europe’s most urbanised areas. It comprises the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg – including the cities of Maastricht, Liege, Eupen, Hasselt, and on the German side, the State of North-Rhine Westfalia (NRW) with the Aachen Region [1]. Divided by three country borders, cross-border criminality and security problems related to a wide range of crime phenomena, occur in a concentrated manner [2]. Legal cooperation between law enforcement authorities remains challenging, partly due to different languages, legal cultures, as well as visible and non-visible barriers that shape the implementation of shared governance [3]. Consequently, the EU Commission refers to border regions (or Euro-regions) as the ‘laboratories of European integration’ [4]. Over the years, the Euregion, but also the aforementioned three neighbouring countries, have been the subject of numerous scientific studies on issues of legal cooperation and legal comparison (e.g. [1–3, 5–9]). However, comparative and empirical research on the ex
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