This book aims to present a coherent picture of the influence of Union law on national criminal law and criminal procedure. It also sketches the contours of the emerging criminal justice system of the Union. European criminal law is explained as a multi-level field of law, in which the Union has a normative influence on substantive criminal law, criminal procedure and on the co-operation between Member States. In the future, this might be supplemented by a European Public Prosecutor’s Office, through which the European Union would enforce criminal law directly.

The book is written for criminal lawyers and European lawyers, as well as practitioners, academics and students of European criminal law. It sets out to allow the reader to assess the mutual (and sometimes conflicting) influence of Union law and national criminal law respectively. The book explains how Union law will usually prevail, although national criminal law still remains relevant.

André Klip is Professor of criminal law, criminal procedure and transnational criminal law at Maastricht University. He is founder and co-editor of the series ‘Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals’. He is also a judge at the ’s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal (criminal division).


About this book

‘[…] a thorough and skilful analysis, practically touching all essential aspects of the criminal justice system. It is a tremendous work of synthesis […]’
Norel Neagu in European Law Review (2010) 447.

‘[…] valuable reading…[w]ritten in a practically useful way… this book makes a timely and valuable addition to a still relatively short bibliography of books devoted to EU criminal law.’
Maria Fletcher in The Edinburgh Law Review (2010) 349.

‘Klip has written an important handbook. The book is an asset for three reasons. a. it os the first book written entirely from the perspective of the Treaty of Lisbon, b. the book paints a coherent and comprehensive image of the fragmentary regulated European criminal law, and c. it is based on a line of thinking which can be best described as a criminal law approach to hard core European law, including the necessary attention to the dynamics of the internal market.’
Professor M.I. Borgers in Delikt en Delinkwent (2010) 303.