LEGAL EFFECTS OF PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS PROVIDED IN ANOTHER MEMBER STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THEIR ROLE IN A NEW CRIMINAL TRIAL

sharing the same generic legal object, on the territory of several Member States of the European Union, the question has arisen as to how these offences should be interpreted within a new criminal proceeding. The difficulty in determining the effects of prior convictions stems not only from the differing legal regulations governing offences in each Member State, but also from the category into which each state places the violations of legal provisions, namely criminal or administrative. An important role in identifying appropriate solutions to the legal issue examined in this study is played by the use of instruments concerning mutual legal assistance, without which Member States would be unable to determine whether those prior convictions handed down in another Member State would constitute offences under national law. In addition to analyzing the relevant European legislation, the paper also considers aspects addressed in recent case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The study aims to highlight the importance that the national court must attach to the sentencing process, ensuring that it does not give prior convictions handed down in other Member States harsher legal effects than if those convictions had been issued by the national court itself, and, at the same time, that it does not reclassify the offence underlying the conviction delivered in another Member State.