The impact of EU criminal law on the Greek criminal justice system

European Criminal Law has been one of the most rapid, remarkable, but at the same time controversial developments in the European Union having a significant impact on domestic criminal justice systems. Judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters soon became a fully-fledged policy of the European Union affecting the national sovereignty of Member States, the relationship between individuals and the States as well as the protection of fundamental rights. My thesis examines the development of EU criminal law towards the creation of a European "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice" (via mutual recognition and the harmonization of substantive criminal law) and its impact on the Greek criminal justice system. In assessing the overall above mentioned question, I examine how EU criminal law has developed; what have been the main political and legal challenges for the implementation in Greece; to what extent, and how, the Greek Legislator has implemented EU law in the field of mutual recognition and harmonization, and, last, but not least, what has been the judges', practitioners' and academics' reaction to this development. The thesis has two parts: one on mutual recognition and one on the harmonization of substantive criminal law. Chapter one explores the main issues regarding the scope, extent, and nature of the principle of mutual recognition at EU level. Chapter two explores the main issues related to the impact as well as the practical operation of the principle of mutual recognition in the Greek Jurisdiction. Chapter three, then, turns its interest on harmonization of substantive criminal laws from the EU point of view. Finally, Chapter four focuses on the impact of the implementation of the EU harmonization system on the Greek Jurisdiction with regard to the same areas of substantive criminal laws, as discussed in chapter three. These chapters are then followed by a conclusion aiming to synthesize and highlight the main issues that have arisen during the analysis of this thesis and answer the main question: "What has been the impact of EU Criminal Law on the Greek Criminal Justice System?"