Implementation of the Corpus Juris - Volume 3

The establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice is one of the key objectives of the Treaty of Amsterdam. Measures to harmonize criminal law as well as measures in the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters are an integral part of the strategy by which to attain this objective. On the basis of the conclusions of the European Council meeting at Tampere (1999), it is obvious that measures are needed so as to guarantee the real mutual recognition of judicial decisions in criminal matters, including the pretrial decisions, and to guarantee the free circulation of criminal evidence. The original Corpus Juris study (1997) had elaborated a number of guiding principles in relation to the protection of the financial interests of the European Union within the framework of the European Judicial Space, including the European Public Prosecutor. This follow-up to the Corpus Juris study aims to analyse the feasibility of the Corpus Juris in relation to the legislation of the Member States and also to analyse the horizontal and vertical cooperation in the Member States. The publication of the follow-up study consists of four volumes. Volume I includes a final synthesis, with a new version of the Corpus Juris (Corpus Juris 2000), and syntheses on the feasibility of the Corpus Juris (draft of 1997) in relation to the legislation of the Member States. Volumes II and III include the 15 national reports concerning the 35 articles of the Corpus Juris (1997 draft). Volume IV relates only to questions concerning horizontal and vertical co-operation. The study was carried out in 1998-1999 upon the request of the European Parliament and the Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, by researchers from the Association of European Lawyers for the Protection of the Financial Interests of the European Union.

John Vervaele was honored Master of Laws (J.D./LL.M) and Master in Criminology (MA) at the University of Ghent (Belgium). Between 1980 and 1985 he was assistant researcher in criminal law and criminal procedural law at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). From 1985 till 1987 he was senior researcher at the Belgian Ministry of Justice. In 1987 he left for the Dutch Institute for Social and Economic Law Research (NISER) at the University of Utrecht. Following the successful defense of his doctorate thesis in 1988 he was in 1990 appointed Assistant Professor in criminal law and criminal procedure and secured the prestigious PIONIER subsidy of the Dutch Council for Scientific Research for the 'Enforcement of European Law' project (1991-1997). He established in 1991 the Centre for Enforcement of European Law at the University of Utrecht and was subsequently appointed Professor/Director in Law Enforcement and European Integration in 1992. Since 1996 he is also Professor in Economic and Financial Criminal Law at the University of Utrecht. From 2003 on he is vice-dean and director of research of the Utrecht Law School. In 2006 he was nominated vice-president of Utrecht University for Latin America.
He is regularly teaching as visiting professor in foreign universities, in Europe and overseas, mostly topics touching upon economic and financial criminal law and European criminal law. He has been teaching as a visiting Professor at Universities in Italy (Rome, Parma, Trento), in Spain (San Sebastian, Salamanca), in Switzerland (Freiburg), in Belgium (Liège), in Colombia (Bogotà, Ibague), in Mexico (D.F) and in the United States (Columbia Law School in New York and American University in Washington DC). From 2014 he is President and Director of the Scientific Committee of the AIDP, the world organization for Criminal Sciences with consultative status with the United Nations and Council of Europe.