Ostropolski Tomasz, Judicial cooperation in criminal matters - 3 years with the Treaty of Lisbon

The new regime introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon (TL) has substantially changed the institutional architecture of the EU, in particular the position of the area of judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Historically speaking, this is yet another location of criminal law in the jigsaw puzzle of the EU system. Starting with the Maastricht Treaty, judicial cooperation, along with home affairs, for the first time became a component of the EU structure. At that time, judicial cooperation in both civil and criminal matters went hand in hand under one umbrella of the so-called III pillar. Then, after the Amsterdam Treaty, civil law got divorced from its criminal counterpart to fall into the first (Community) pillar. In parallel, police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters remained quite distinct from other EU policies under the specific intergovernmental regime of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU).

The entry into force of the TL nearly 3 years ago (1 December 2009) rendered...