Fabio Giuffrida

Email: f.giuffrida@qmul.ac.uk

Thesis title

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office: a New Model of Criminal Justice and its Impact on National Systems (provisional title).

Supervisors

Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas and Dr Saskia Hufnagel.

Summary of research

Fabio’s research focuses on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and its impact on national criminal justice systems. The EPPO is the first EU body empowered to exercise direct powers vis-à-vis individuals in the field of criminal law and its establishment has been discussed for about twenty years. Eventually approved in October 2017 by twenty EU Member States, the Regulation setting up the EPPO raises a number of questions. After discussing the ‘federal’ rationale behind the creation of a European prosecuting authority, the thesis analyses the resistance of Member States to embrace such a groundbreaking project. It shows that the EPPO cannot be considered as a proper federal body and that the Regulation envisages a new system of criminal justice, where EU and national law are interwoven. The thesis studies and categorises the interactions between the two layers of this new system, pointing out some of the issues that may come to the fore and the potential solutions thereof.

Biography

Fabio completed his Master of Laws at the University of Catania (Italy), where he also attended the Scuola Superiore di Catania, a higher education institution that provides university students with additional courses. After graduation, he worked for almost two years in Italy as a trainee lawyer and was admitted to the Italian Bar in October 2016. In 2014, he served a three-month internship at the Italian Desk of Eurojust. In the frame of a grant awarded by the “Giovanni e Francesca Falcone” Foundation (Palermo, Italy), he spent a couple of months as a trainee in the Serious and Organised Crime – Fraud Unit of Europol in 2015, where he worked in the unit dealing with environmental crime.

In September 2015, Fabio has obtained a scholarship from the Criminal Justice Centre of the Queen Mary University of London. During his PhD, he was Research Assistant to Prof. Valsamis Mitsilegas in the EU-funded research project ‘EUPenTRAIN’ (‘Preparing the Environment for the EPPO: Fostering Mutual Trust by Improving Existing Common Legal Heritage and Enhancing Common Legal Understanding’). At the end of 2017, he was invited by the European Court of Auditors to participate as an expert in a meeting related to a performance audit on the Commission’s management of fraud risk in European Union spending. With Prof. Mitsilegas, he is currently part of the CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies) & Queen Mary Task Force on “The Future of EU, UK and US Cooperation in Criminal Justice and Police Cooperation”.

Publications

• ‘Taricco principles beyond Taricco. Some thoughts on three pending cases (Scialdone, Kolev and Menci)’, in The New Journal of European Criminal Law, 9(1), 2018, pp. 31-37.
• ‘The Protection of the Union’s Financial Interests after Lisbon’, in R. Sicurella, V. Mitsilegas, R. Parizot and A. Lucifora (eds.), General Principles for a Common Criminal Law Framework in the EU, Giuffrè, 2018.
• ‘Ne bis in idem’ (with V. Mitsilegas), in R. Sicurella, V. Mitsilegas, R. Parizot and A. Lucifora (eds.), General Principles for a Common Criminal Law Framework in the EU, Giuffrè, 2018.
• ‘The European Public Prosecutor’s Office and Human Rights’ (with V. Mitsilegas), in W. Geelhoed, A. Meij and L. Erkelens (eds.), Shifting Perspectives on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, T.M.C. Asser Press – Springer Verlag, 2018, pp. 59–98.
• ‘Cross-Border Crimes and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’, in eucrim, 3, 2017, pp. 149-156.
• ‘Raising the Bar? Thoughts on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office?’ (with V. Mitsilegas), CEPS Policy Insights No. 2017/39, November 2017, pp. 1-23.
• ‘The European Public Prosecutor's Office: King without kingdom?’, CEPS Research Report No. 2017/03, February 2017, pp. 1-45.
• ‘The Role of EU Agencies in Fighting Transnational Environmental Crime. New Challenges for Eurojust and Europol’ (with V. Mitsilegas), in Brill Research Perspectives in Transnational Crime, 1(1), 2017, pp. 1-150.
• ‘Ai confini tra il giudice contabile e il giudice penale: i rapporti tra le giurisdizioni e la problematica nozione di “ente pubblico”’ (with G. Grasso), in L'Indice Penale, 3, 2016, pp. 894-931.
• ‘The limitation period of crimes: same old Italian story, new intriguing European answers. Case note on CJEU, Judgement of 8 September 2015, C-105/14, Taricco’, in The New Journal of European Criminal Law, 7(1), 2016, pp. 100-112.
• ‘L’influenza sul giudicato interno delle sentenze della Corte Europea che accertano violazioni attinenti al diritto penale sostanziale’ (with G. Grasso), in Diritto Penale Contemporaneo, May 2015, pp. 1-56.