European Criminal Law in fact includes EU Law, influenced by European institutions and stemming from Member States agreements. At the same time, it is Council-of-Europe–inspired Law be it through minimum guarantees by the ECHR or through the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) influence on national criminal laws and procedures. Yet, one searches in vain for a European Criminal Code. Against the rumor that in consequence, European Criminal Law as such does not exist, the first chapter seeks to put up the umbrella and discuss and reveal sources and resources of current European Criminal Law and the intersections of EU Law on the one side and Council-of-Europe–inspired Law on the other side. That will in the end offer a panoramic view constituting European Criminal Law as the sum of European Union law imposing sanctions applicable in all Member States together with (Europeanised) national criminal law influenced by European law and Council-of-Europe inspired and set against European institutions and instruments that aim at ensuring effective criminal prosecution.

The aim of this chapter is to cast light on the interplay between mutual recognition and fundamental rights in Europe’s area of criminal justice. Focusing particularly on the framework decision on the European arrest warrant, the chapter begins by placing the application of the principle of mutual recognition within the context of the objective of effective interstate cooperation in criminal matters. The chapter then examines the extent to which fundamental rights have emerged as a limit on automatic mutual recognition both in secondary EU law and in the case law of the CJEU. The chapter analyses the extent to which harmonisation of fundamental rights in EU secondary law can provide a basis for enhancing mutual trust and thus facilitate the operation of mutual recognition in criminal matters. In this manner, the chapter assesses the extent to which EU law has moved from ‘blind’ to 'earned' trust in Europe’s area of criminal justice.