Principle of Mutual Recognition

Definition

The principle of mutual recognition is the guiding principle of judicial cooperation in criminal matters within the EU. It means that judicial decisions of one member state are to be recognized and enforced in other member states without extensive further review — much as commercial decisions are recognized within the common single market.

Significance for the EAW

The European Arrest Warrant rests entirely on this principle. Instead of full extradition proceedings with diplomatic notes and a governmental granting procedure, the competent judicial authority of the executing state alone decides on the surrender — without any review of the question of guilt or any substantive examination of the foreign judgment.

Limits of the principle

Mutual recognition does not apply without limits. It finds its bounds in the fundamental rights of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, in the ECHR and — according to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) — in the core of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz, GG). In particular, where there are systemic deficiencies in the issuing state (lack of judicial independence, unacceptable detention conditions), recognition may be refused.

Case law of the ECJ

In a series of decisions — including Aranyosi/Căldăraru, LM (Celmer) and L and P on the Polish judiciary — the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has developed the mechanism of a rebuttable presumption: as a rule, mutual trust is presumed, but it can be rebutted by concrete indications of systemic deficiencies.

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