TY - JOUR
T1 - Bringing directives on procedural rights of the EU to police stations
T2 - Practical training for criminal defence lawyers
AU - Mols, Violet
N1 - Funding Information:
The author would like to thank Sarah Pryor, Anna Pivaty and Dr Vicky Conway for reviewing the earlier versions of the article. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The article is written under the EU-funded project ‘SUPRALAT: Strengthening the protection of suspects’ procedural rights in pre-trial proceedings in the EU through practice-oriented training for lawyers’ (JUST 2014/JTRA/AG/EJTR/6844) (1 October 2015 to 30 September 2017).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - Although national laws implementing Directive 2013/48/EU on the right of access to a lawyer provide a legal framework, the protection of the rights of suspects must be carried out by defence lawyers in their day-to-day practice. National legal frameworks may be internally inconsistent or may fall short of European Union requirements. Research shows that, for these or other reasons, defence counsels may encounter a variety of difficulties in fulfilling their role at police interviews, which often leads them to adopt a passive approach. An approach focused on adherence to new regulations appears insufficient to prepare lawyers for this role. It is essential that lawyers are given practical tools to effectively fulfil their role, especially where regulations do not provide any guidance. To this end, a new practical training programme has been developed and piloted in four countries, with these initial experiments providing promising results.
AB - Although national laws implementing Directive 2013/48/EU on the right of access to a lawyer provide a legal framework, the protection of the rights of suspects must be carried out by defence lawyers in their day-to-day practice. National legal frameworks may be internally inconsistent or may fall short of European Union requirements. Research shows that, for these or other reasons, defence counsels may encounter a variety of difficulties in fulfilling their role at police interviews, which often leads them to adopt a passive approach. An approach focused on adherence to new regulations appears insufficient to prepare lawyers for this role. It is essential that lawyers are given practical tools to effectively fulfil their role, especially where regulations do not provide any guidance. To this end, a new practical training programme has been developed and piloted in four countries, with these initial experiments providing promising results.
KW - access to a lawyer
KW - interview of a suspect
KW - legal assistance
KW - training
U2 - 10.1177/2032284417723421
DO - 10.1177/2032284417723421
M3 - Article
SN - 2032-2844
VL - 8
SP - 300
EP - 308
JO - New Journal of European Criminal Law
JF - New Journal of European Criminal Law
IS - 3
ER -