We kindly invite you to a lecture by Matej Igličar entitled “Defendants in European Union Law: Between Shield and Sword of Criminal Procedure Law”, which will take place as part of the Tuesday Meetings on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at 11 a.m. in the library of the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law Ljubljana.
The system of judicial cooperation in criminal matters between the Member States of the European Union (EU) is based on the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions, which enables more efficient prosecution of cross-border crimes, but at the same time has a negative impact on the protection of the rights of the accused due to the chosen approach of mutual trust and an unbalanced emphasis on efficiency. The problematic principled starting points are reflected in the inadequate legislative activity and case law, which do not prioritize the protection of the rights of the accused. As a result, this leads to a deterioration in the position of the individual in cross-border criminal proceedings compared to national criminal proceedings.
The lecture is therefore dedicated to analyzing the theoretical basis of judicial cooperation in criminal matters, its application in practice, and proposals for improving the current situation.
Matej Igličar completed his first degree at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana. During his studies, he was a tutor for criminal procedural law and a member of the winning team at the PAX Moot Court competition, where he received the prize for the best speaker. He received the UL Student Prešeren Award for his research work, which forms the title of the lecture. He is doing his Master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, where he studies human rights in criminal procedure, philosophy of law and public law theory.
