A long-standing pillar of the ECBA’s training activities: our partnership with ERA (the Academy of European Law) in Trier in the project European Criminal Law for Defence Lawyers, running for well over a decade and firmly established as a key platform for cross-border defence training in Europe.
The project responds to a clear and growing need. The rising use of EU instruments of mutual recognition and cooperation in criminal matters — such as the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), the European Investigation Order (EIO) and the European Protection Order (EPO) — means defence lawyers are increasingly confronted with complex cross-border cases. In the absence of full harmonisation of national criminal and criminal procedural law, practitioners regularly need clarification on how EU law applies in practice.
Through successive editions of seminars across EU Member States, the ECBA-ERA partnership has equipped hundreds of defence lawyers with the practical knowledge and networks needed to defend effectively in EU criminal proceedings.