RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

Development of criminal law in the aereas of European interest in the perspective of the new reform proposals of the Treaties

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi INSUBRIA Varese-Como - DIRITTO PUBBLICO ED INTERNAZIONALE - ()

Research Unit Leader

Francesca Gisella Ruggieri

Description

The research appears to be really innovative, because, though the existence of some studies on specifical subjects (mostly on interceptions), there is surely a lack of deep reflections from the visual angle of the criminal procedure, which consent to consider the new technologies in a unified perspective, and to have an organic view, as in other countries, of the legislation on communicative and not communicative data, with relevance to the criminal proceeding.
At a first time, it will be necessary to collect and catalogue the relevant legislation, dividing the search results into communitarian or conventional rules, or into national rules (German and Spanish speaking countries will be especially considered; to a lesser extent, also French and English speaking countries; and not only European Union countries, but Russian Federation too, considering its specificity and new tradition).
Particular attention will be drawn to the legislative measures having an impact on personal data protection in criminal investigations and proceedings adopted by the European Union under the so called “Third Pillar” for the establishment of the European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, and to their transposition into the Italian legal system, together with an assessment of the innovations set forth in this field by the new Reform Treaty of the European Union to be signed in December 2007. As regards the latter, the research will focus on the problems arising form the new provisions (among them, it can be already pointed out that the New Treaty provides different specific provisions on data protection for the area of the Foreign Common and Security Policy, which call upon different procedures for the adoption of such acts, as well as the problem of the competence of the Court of Justice in reviewing their legality).
From an institutional point of view, it is also important to analyse the competences and the activity of new institutions entrusted with the power to control the respect of the right to the protection of ones’s personal data: the Data Protection Commissioners set out in the Member States as well as the European Data protection Supervisor at EU level, both sitting in the Art. 29 Data Protection Working Party, an independent EU Advisory Body on Data Protection and Privacy. The analysis of the activity of Art. 29 Data Protection Working Party cannot be disregarded both because, form a subject matter point of view, it has played thus far a crucial role in assuring the substantial respect of the right to the protection of personal data in any sector of life and proposing new solutions for enhancing the standards of protection of this right, and also because it is developing a new “multilvel” system of protection, which procedes side by side with the traditional judial dialogue among the European Court of Justice and national judges.
The research, based on a comparative and European approach, will then enable to verify definitions and regulations existing in the different countries, with a focus on the guarantees depending from the "intrusivity" of the different technologies: all this in the perspective, common to all States, of the balancing of the right to privacy with the needs of the ascertainment of facts in criminal matters.
Only after this wide work of research, it will be possible to find original solutions in the area of Italian law and of international cooperation.
The results of the research will be discussed in apposite seminars and published.