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 Project Website

 

The JUD-IT Project researches ways in which cross border judicial cooperation directed at requesting, accessing, exchanging and using electronic information as evidence in the framework of criminal proceedings can be streamlined, fostered and made more effective within the EU and relations with third countries.

JUD-IT aims at identifying solutions for a trust-based use of EU legal instruments for cross-border access to electronic information and the admission of data as evidence before criminal courts. The main objectives of the JUD-IT Project are to:

Develop a set of benchmarks ensuring that cross-border requests and access to electronic information in the framework of criminal proceedings are in line with the EU rule of law and fundamental rights standards.

Deliver an in-depth comparative examination and assessment of the day-to-day practices and most relevant legal challenges in securing, requesting, and obtaining digital information held by private companies, in particular through the use of: the European Investigation Order (EIO); and the application of EU Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties  (MLATs) with the US and Japan.

Identify transferable promising practices that, while implemented by EU Member States with different criminal justice systems and constitutional traditions, are established under clear EU legal basis, and present the potential to make access and use of electronic information in the criminal justice domain more efficient and in line with the needs of relevant authorities and actors. 

Produce sound and independent academic research and exchange expert knowledge among different communities of practice including judges, lawyers, EU and national policy makers, and the civil society.

The project delivered the following results:

• Cross-border Access to Electronic Data through Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters – State of the art and latest developments in the EU and the US by Marco Stefan / Gloria González Fuster (find it here)
• Law Enforcement Access to Electronic Data in the framework of Cross-border Criminal Investigations: State of the Art and Fundamental Rights Challenges by Francesca Galli
• JUD-IT Handbook by Marco Stefan (find it here)

JUD-IT is constituted by a network of leading European research centres, universities and a civil society organization.

The JUD-IT partners are:

• CEPS (Coordinator)
• European University Institute 
• Maastricht University
• Vrije Universiteit Brussels
• Central European University
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Uppsala University 
• University of Luxembourg
• Fair Trials Europe