Italy: the EU Criminal Cooperation Instruments at the Test in Italy – Procedures and Critical Profiles

The implementation into the Italian legal system of the EU instruments of judicial cooperation – namely, the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), the European Investigation Order (EIO), and the Regulation 1805/2018 on the Mutual Recognition on Freezing and Confiscation Orders – followed very different paths, depending on the margin of discretion allowed by each EU legislative instrument and the entity of discrepancies with the national procedural law. The Chapter aims to illustrate the process of implementation of these EU cooperation instruments in Italian procedural law, carefully analysing the most noteworthy issues that emerged over the years. To this end, relevant pieces of legislation, related amendments, and salient case law will be considered. Before delving into the critical issues affecting the implementation of each specific instrument, we provide an overview of their transposition in the Italian system.