Name: Evert F.

Family Name: Stamhuis

Affiliation: Open University of the Netherlands

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Short BIO

Evert F. Stamhuis holds the chair for criminal law and procedure at the Open University of the Netherlands. He also lectures at his previous post, the University of Groningen. His teaching and research cover topics of criminal procedure, criminal justice reform, international co-operation in criminal justice and comparative law. He has international experience in academic as well as expert consultancy assignments. He is a part time justice in the Court of Appeal of ‘s Hertogenbosch (NL).

Title of the presentation

A criminal law perspective on the Prüm process

Abstract

The exchange of information as provided for in the recently adopted mechanisms for data exchange may remedy a lack of co-operation from which serious offenders may have benefitted in the past. A large proportion of these offenders will probably fall outside the categories that were referred to in the preliminary observations to the Prüm Treaty (terrorists, transnational organized crime etc.), but nevertheless account for serious breaches of the criminal law. The mechanism for DNA data exchange exposes however some weaknesses of the system, which provisions in the field of criminal procedure will not be able to repair. The reliability of the result of a DNA data base search decreases statistically when the number of data is multiplied by connecting databases. A proportion of the exchanged personal data are false positives. Further investigation may lead to the actual suspect, but the handling of the false data will not be part of scrutiny in the consecutive criminal proceedings. The supervision mechanism for the exchange of personal data as evidence in the Treaty is expected not to provide for sufficient control either. The development at equal pace of the principle of mutual recognition in Europe may help in balancing the system.

On-line publications

Old and new boundaries, presentation to the European Conference on DNA Data Exchange in Criminal Justice on http://www.dna-conference.eu/index.php/programme

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