Herlin-Karnell, Ester --- "Is administrative law still relevant? How the battle of sanctions has shaped EU criminal law" [2016] ELECD 498; in Mitsilegas, Valsamis; Bergström, Maria; Konstadinides, Theodore (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Criminal Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 233

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Criminal Law

Editor(s): Mitsilegas, Valsamis; Bergström, Maria; Konstadinides, Theodore

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783473304

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Is administrative law still relevant? How the battle of sanctions has shaped EU criminal law

Author(s): Herlin-Karnell, Ester

Number of pages: 16

Abstract/Description:

The idea of this chapter is to investigate the extent to which the EU legislator has continued invoking administrative sanctions when dealing with irregularities in the market and to explain why the history of administrative sanctions has shaped contemporary EU criminal law. Administrative sanctions have always formed a crucial part of the European Union’s enforcement strategy, particularly with regard to competition fines and sanctions in the domain of EU agriculture and fisheries policies. Yet with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and thereby the legislative competences granted in criminal matters, one would perhaps have thought that there was no further need for administrative law sanctions in the EU. The distinction between administrative law and criminal law used to be the main point of departure for the debate on sanctions back in the days when the EU pillars still determined the realm of competence of the EU’s involvement in criminal law proper. In those early days, a lack of legislative competence in criminal law meant that the administrative procedure was the only avenue by which the EU could impose sanctions. However, despite the Treaty reformation and thereby the inclusion of criminal law in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (as part of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ)), as this contribution will show, the EU legislator still favours the administrative procedure in certain market related areas.