10.15166/2499-8249/40
Uría Gavilán, Elisa
Elisa
Uría Gavilán
University Carlos III of Madrid
Solange III? The German Federal Constitutional Court Strikes Again
European Papers (www.europeanpapers.eu)
2016
European Forum Highlight
Constitutional Court of Germany
European arrest warrant
fundamental rights
conviction in absentia
Research Centre For European Law, Unitelma Sapienza-University Of Rome
2016-04-16
en
2499-8249
text/html
PDF
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International
European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(1), 367-368
European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(1), 367-368
European Forum Highlight of 16 April 2016
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, issued a landmark order as it undertook for the very first time the so called "identity review" over a measure of execution of a European Arrest Warrant. This measure concerned a citizen of the United States who had been sentenced in absentia to a custodial sentence of thirty years in Italy. Twelve years later he was arrested in Germany and the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court declared the extradition to be permissible on the basis of the European Arrest Warrant. The Constitutional Court stated that the decision of the instance court violated the principle of individual guilt of the complainant which is rooted in the guarantee of human dignity enshrined in the German Constitution. However, the Constitutional Court did not deem is necessary to annul the decision of the instance court for violation of the principles of the due process of law enshrined in the German Constitution. It rather found that the instance court should re-examine the request of extradition under the provisions of the framework decision on arrest warrant which allow to refuse the extradition if the basic guarantee of the due process had not been complied with in the original trial. The decision of the instance court was therefore vacated and remanded.