LEAP members to address EU criminal justice challenges at forthcoming Annual Conference in Athens

The annual conference of LEAP (the Legal Experts Advisory Panel) will take place in Athens on 3 and 4 March 2017. As in previous years, it will be an opportunity for legal experts from across Europe to discuss various issues related to criminal justice in the region, including pre-trial detention, the European Arrest Warrant and defence rights in courts. The two-day conference will include contributions from key-note speakers during plenary sessions, as well as break-out sessions in smaller groups to take part in discussion and two training workshops.
In the last year, the LEAP network has witnessed some positive developments in the EU as far as procedural rights are concerned, including the adoption of the Legal Aid Directive and the entry into force of the Directive on the Right of Access to a Lawyer. However, lots of work remains to be done as regards the effective implementation of these instruments, whilst ensuring that new domestic laws are not regressing on defence rights. In the meantime, pre-trial detention remains a huge problem in many European countries and courts are starting to address abusive practices when deciding on the extradition of suspects within and outside the EU.
The first part of the conference will deal with pre-trial detention and cross-border justice. Speakers will specifically look at how abusive pre-trial detention can challenge international cooperation instruments such as the European Arrest Warrant. Domestic developments in third countries will also be taken into account, with specific reference to emergency measures enforced in Turkey after the attempted coup of July 2016 and the various responses from EU courts as regards extradition requests from Ankara. The second session will delve into judicial remedies provided to violations of fair trial rights. During this panel, the LEAP Working Group on judicial remedies will launch a new policy paper on the case of Ibrahim and Others v UK. The third and final part of the conference will be dedicated to foster conversations with the LEAP members around the development of national action plans to uphold the right to a fair trial at the national level.
The Legal Experts Advisory Panel (LEAP) is an EU-wide network of experts in criminal justice and human rights which works to promote fair and effective judicial cooperation within Europe. The network currently counts over 200 members, made up of lawyers, NGOs, and academics, covering all 28 EU Member States. Through Fair Trials’ coordination, LEAP is able to offer an expert view on a broad range of EU criminal justice topics, while also boosting cooperation between human rights defenders in cross-border work.