Peculiarities of the Enforcement of the European Arrest Warrant in the Case of Illegal Deprivation of Liberty

• Author: Minodora Ioana Rusu
• Position: Legal Counsellor
• Pages: 28-34

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives

2010

28

Peculiarities of the Enforcement of the European Arrest Warrant in the

Case of an Illegal Liberty Deprivation

Minodora Ioana Rusu

Legal Counsellor, oanarusu_86@yahoo.com

Abstract: The illegal deprivation of liberty is, under the current context, one of the most serious offenses,

being treated differently in the European Union. The need to p revent and combat this violation, it has led the

European legislator to include it under different names in the European legislative act that governs the

institution of the European arrest warrant . In this context, the European arrest warra nt is the most important

form of judicial cooperation in penal matters between the Member States of the EU, which is based on mutual

recognition of criminal judgments. The research conducted on how it is regulated the enforcement of the

European arrest warrant in the case of illegal liberty deprivation i n the European legislative act (the

Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA) leads to the conclusion that the legislature failed to mention the

violation in question in the group of the violation for w hich it was not necessary the inspecti on of the double

incrimination, but, still, including the offenses as kidnapping, illegal res traint and hostage-taking. Even if the

Romanian legislator included this violation in the above mentioned group, this situation is not solved,

because it will cause some problems in the request b y the Romanian judicial authorities of the enforcement of

such warrant. Another criticized issue, observed not only in the European legislative ac t, but also in the

internal law, is r elated to the lack of stipulations, which can lead to the possibility of issuing and executing a

European arrest warrant and for the execution of educational measures for illegal deprivation of liberty and

also other s. Also, in order to increase the effectiveness of the execution of a European arrest warrant, we

consider that it should be granted executive powers of all courts of Romania. The originality of the work

consists of the critical observations and the lege ferenda proposal which co vers both the European legislative

act and the Romanian Law. At the same time, the critical opinions are useful for the Romanian legislator that

intends to supplement and amend the special law, and for the European one also for amending and

supplementing the European Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA.

Keywords: lege ferenda; illegal deprivation of liberty; European arrest warrant; European legislative act

1. Introductory Considerations

Within the complex activities of international judicial cooperation in criminal matters, one of the most

important problems observed in the past by all states of the world was the handing in of the people

against whom it was performed a penal pursuit or they were convicted in a state and they were hiding

in a different state.

This situation has found its resolution only in the second half of the nineteenth century, when it

appeared the institution of extradition, which operated only on the basis of international bilateral

instruments concluded in particular on geographic and neighbourhood criteria.

However, the extradition of their own citizens was not accepted, such a measure being considered

(wrongly) as a breach of the state sovereignty principle.