The Emergence of EU Criminal Law ─ Cyber Crime and the Regulation of the Information Society

Criminal law can no longer be neatly categorized as the product and responsibility of domestic law. That this is true is emphasized by the ever-increasing amount of legislation stemming from the European Union which impacts, both directly and indirectly, the criminal law. The involvement of the EU institutions in the substantive criminal laws of its Member States is of considerable legal and political significance. This book deals with the emerging EU framework for creating, harmonizing, and ensuring the application of EU criminal law. This book highlights some of the consequences of EU involvement in criminal law by examining the provisions which have been adopted in the field of information and communication technology. The first section of the book offers an overview of the criminal law competence of the EU and evaluates the impact of these developments on the criminal laws of the Member States. The second part analyzes EU legislation which requires Member States to regulate matters, such as data protection, e-security, intellectual property, and various types of illegal content through criminal law. In the course of this evaluation, particular consideration is given to issues, such as the basis on which the EU institutions establish the need for criminal sanctions, the liability of service providers, and the extent to which the Member States have adhered to, or departed from, the legislation in the course of implementation. (Series: Studies in International and Comparative Criminal Law)

Sarah Summers is SNF Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law at the University of Zurich.Christian Schwarzenegger is Professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Criminology and Head of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Zurich. Gian Ege, MLaw, is a researcher working under the auspices of Christian Schwarzenegger at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His research interests lie in the field of substantive criminal law and European criminal law. He is currently working on his PhD which concerns the role of emotion in the criminal law. Finlay Young, LLB (hons), LLM is a Scottish independent lawyer, journalist, and researcher. His research focuses on issues of access to justice in developing countries, and human rights law in the European context.