Testing the supranational dimension of offenders' rehabilitation: Towards a new paradigm of criminal punishment in the European Union?

• In Event: When re-entry means removal: The management of EU national prison populations in Europe

Abstract

In the last years, the integration process of the European Union has made significant steps forward in the domain of criminal law. This political and normative trend has triggered debate on key-notions of criminal law and criminology, which are now undergoing a remarkable paradigm shift. The concept of offenders' rehabilitation is one of the core issues in this regard. On the one hand, it represents an essential component of punishment (in some cases even codified as such in national constitutions). On the other hand, the europeanization of criminal justice has put it to test, under the pressure of opposing driving forces such as national sovereignty, share EU objectives, effective supranational contrast to crime, the status of the individual within the multi-level criminal justice system. This new dimension of offenders' rehabilitation raises several questions, which the proposed presentation intends to address, namely the conceptual essence of this notion in a supranational domain, its implications in terms of international obligations of the Member States, the need to strike a balance between the quest for effectiveness of EU law and fundamental rights, the gradual emergence of a supranational common approach to the aims of criminal punishment in the ever-closer European judicial space.

Author

• Stefano Montaldo, University of Turin, Italy