RELATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF MUTUAL RECOGNITION / TRUST AND VERIFICATION OF DOUBLE CRIMINALITY

Abstract

The paper elaborates the problems of the relation between the principle of mutual recognition and trust and the verification of double criminality, which attract great attention of experts in the field of international judicial cooperation with a focus on criminal matters. In the introductory part of the paper, the structure of the legal foundations of the European Union is shown, then the principle of mutual trust as a structural principle of the constitutional rights of the EU, its origin and context in the light of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. The central part of the paper inquires into the problems of the principle of double criminality in regard to the various forms of double criminality with no uniform application of its term in judicial cooperation and thus collides with the principle of mutual trust in way that leads to problems in the international judicial cooperation. Afterwards, the paper outlines the relation of the Republic of Croatia towards the principle of mutual trust with regard to the decision of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court and concludes with the final analysis of importance of the principle of mutual recognition in transnational judicial cooperation in criminal matters.