Edward Grange, Partner at Corker Binning, will attend Fair Trials Legal Experts Advisory Panel (LEAP) annual conference.
The annual conference of LEAP (the Legal Experts Advisory Panel) will take place in Athens on 3 and 4 March 2017. As in previous years, it will be an opportunity for legal experts from across Europe to discuss various issues related to criminal justice in the region, including pre-trial detention, the European Arrest Warrant and defence rights in courts. The two-day conference will include contributions from key-note speakers during plenary sessions, as well as break-out sessions in smaller groups to take part in discussion and two training workshops.
In the last year, the LEAP network has witnessed some positive developments in the EU as far as procedural rights are concerned, including the adoption of the Legal Aid Directive and the entry into force of the Directive on the Right of Access to a Lawyer. However, lots of work remains to be done as regards the effective implementation of these instruments, whilst ensuring that new domestic laws are not regressing on defence rights. In the meantime, pre-trial detention remains a huge problem in many European countries and courts are starting to address abusive practices when deciding on the extradition of suspects within and outside the EU.
Edward will be leading one of the group sessions, and will explore the questions which national courts should be asking the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in relation to European Arrest Warrant (EAW) cases.
Further information on LEAP can be found here.