Strengthening judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Mechanisms, challenges, and perspectives

This work represents a large-scale monographic research combining the political-legal analysis of European integration seen in its processuality for the area of security, freedom and justice, but also the institutional-procedural and decision-making consolidation viewed from the perspective of temporary solutions up to the creation of mechanisms which would allow a certain "decisional flexibility" in a new treaty architecture.

This study, and there are not many of its kind, is also distinguished by the deep research of some aspects that, most of the time, are briefly addressed and only touched upon in a small part. This work, due to its an inter- and multi-disciplinary character, allows for a coherent treatment of the issues addressed, providing a complete picture of judicial cooperation in criminal matters as part of the area of freedom, security and justice.

The author's effort to analyze the topic by referring to the treaty reforms, the decision-making process, relevant aspects regarding subsidiarity and proportionality, the criminal policy in the member states, the reports and decisions of the Council, the Parliament and the Commission, the jurisprudence of the CJEU, valorizing also the rich recent doctrinal material from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Romania, allowing us to express our own points of view, which we consider useful and necessary for judicial practice in general, but also for decision-makers at the level national when we are dealing with Romania's position vis-a-vis the present and the future of the European Union, and Romania's place and role in the EU. - Professor Iordan Ghe. Barbulescu, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration