Obtaining and Assessing Information about Rule of Law Compliance in Member State Courts – Using the European Arrest Warrant as an Illustration

Description

The backsliding of the rule of law in recent years in some Member States has been a problem within the European union. Not least, this applies to Poland. Against this background, it has been questioned if the courts in these Member States can act independently. It has even gone so far as several member states have questioned whether persons requested by an European Arrest Warrant from Poland should be surrendered to Poland because Poland violates fundamental rights arising from Article 47 of the EU Charter and Article 6 of the ECHR. The CJEU has empowered the executing judicial authorities, often first instance national courts, to perform a “rule-of-law check” of the issuing judicial authority, by assessing the independence and impartiality of that authority through a two-step test. A surrender of the requested person can be rejected under exceptional circumstances if there is a real risk for a breach of that person’s fundamental right to a fair trial before an independent court previously established by law if surrendered.
This article discusses the conditions under which an executing judicial authority can refuse to execute a European arrest warrant with reference to the risk of fair-trial breaches if the requested person is surrendered to the issuing state. Where does the executive authority find information about the conditions in the issuing state, "who" provides them with the information, and how should this information be assessed on a general level and in relation to a requested person in a specific case? To give a Swedish perspective, the Swedish model for handling a European arrest warrant from an issuing state will be presented. How is the previously mentioned assessment supposed to be done in a Swedish context? Finally, is there a specific role model for dealing with European arrest warrants when information about the judiciary in the issuing state risks the execution of a European arrest warrant being rejected?

Period	2022 Nov 21
Event title	Procedures for Protecting the Rule of Law
Event type	Workshop
Location	Lund, SwedenShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International