With
the developing landscape of a European criminal justice sphere comes an
increasing imperative for scholars and practitioners to gain some
insight into the diversity that exists in the criminal justice systems
of European Union Member States.
This book explores the mutual admissibility of evidence; a facet of
EU criminal justice that is proving difficult to realise. While the
Lisbon Treaty places the issue of mutual admissibility of evidence
squarely on the agenda, the EU instruments to date have not succeeded in
achieving this goal. The author argues that part of the reason for
this failure is that while the mutual recognition instruments have
focussed on the issue of gathering evidence and safeguarding suspects’
rights, they have not addressed how evidence is to be presented and
contested at trial.
Drawing upon case studies from Ireland, France and Italy, and
adopting a legal cultural perspective, and enriched by the author’s
observations of criminal trials, the book presents a detailed analysis
of the developments to date in EU criminal justice and evidence law. By
examining evidence practices the book asks whether the inquisitorial and
accusatorial traditions within the EU systems are too irreconcilable to
achieve a system of mutual admissibility of evidence.