Managing diversity: The European Arrest Warrant and the potential of mutual recognition as a mode of governance in EU Justice and Home Affairs

Sievers, Julia. (2007) Managing diversity: The European Arrest Warrant and the potential of mutual recognition as a mode of governance in EU Justice and Home Affairs. In: UNSPECIFIED, Montreal, Canada. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

[From the introduction]. Mutual recognition is the central mode of governance in the Single Market which helped to overcome trade barriers caused by differences in national product regulation. Based on the positive experiences with mutual recognition in the Single Market, the EU heads of state decided to copy this mode of governance and make it the “cornerstone” of judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Being faced with a perceived rise in threats such as cross-border crime and terrorism, mutual recognition is expected to enhance the free movement of criminal investigation, prosecutions and sentences across EU borders. The European Arrest Warrant is the first application of this new mode of governance in EU Justice and Home Affairs. Yet, many more measures such as the European Evidence Warrant are to follow. However, can a mode of governance which worked well in the Single Market improve judicial cooperation? The goal of this paper is to analyze the potential of mutual recognition as a governance mode in EU Justice and Home Affairs, a policy area which belongs to the core functions of statehood and is traditionally characterized by cumbersome cooperation procedures and strong sovereignty concerns. As a horizontal mode of governance, mutual recognition is primarily concerned with governing via a network of national judges who mutually accept and enforce each others’ judicial decisions. The introduction of mutual recognition raised hopes among member states to eventually improve judicial cooperation since agreeing on centralized rules to address the existing cooperation problems did not prove politically feasible. My research question is under what conditions mutual recognition is able to improve judicial cooperation in criminal matters and solve governance problems. To answer this question I draw on empirical evidence on the implementation and application of the European Arrest Warrant which has been in operation for three and a half years now.

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