Brexit's impact on transfers of prisoners: A shift in balance between criminal policy objectives and individuals' rights?

英国脱欧对囚犯转移的影响：刑事政策目标和个人权利之间平衡的转变？

• 批准号: AH/W003848/1
• 负责人: Irene Wieczorek
• 金额: $ 24.28万
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW003848%2F1
• 关键词: Brexit; impact; transfers; prisoners; shift

Through this fellowship I wish to establish thought leadership in the field of international cooperation in criminal justice, by investigating the impact of Brexit on international transfers of prisoners. The ultimate aim is to design a post-Brexit policy framework for UK authorities to guide the authorization and denial of prisoners' transfers.The UK hosts 9340 foreigner prisoners, and there are 5700 Britons detained abroad. For prisoners detained in a foreign country, rehabilitation can be more difficult since they may lack support networks (e.g., family and friends) and access to work and learning opportunities. To compensate for these challenges, prisoners convicted abroad can in some cases be transferred to their home country and allowed to complete their sentence there.Before Brexit, the UK could rely on EU Law as a legal basis for prisoner transfers back to EU States. After Brexit, the UK has to rely on international law. Interestingly, neither EU nor international law envisage a right to a transfer, and, controversially, both allow to transfer prisoners without their consent. Such a possibility has been subject to criticism on the basis that transferring prisoners without their consent actually hampers their rehabilitation and only supports 'emptying prisons', although no empirical study has verified this assumption. However, EU law in principle offered a higher level of individual rights protection than international law, through EU citizenship rights, and the EU charter of fundamental rights. Moreover, EU constitutional norms explicitly require balancing criminal policy objectives with individual rights. Still an extensive discussion is lacking on whether falling back on international law after Brexit, would actually imply a lowering of prisoners' rights, and a change in how these should be balanced against the states' criminal policy objectives.This fellowship would allow me to exhaustively investigate how much decision-making autonomy prisoners can and should enjoy in transfers proceedings and whether that changes after Brexit, from a multi-dimensional perspective which has eluded literature so far. I would compare what do EU law, international law, and UK domestic law prescribe in terms of criminal policy objectives that transfers should pursue; relevant prisoners' rights and interests; and how such criminal policy objectives and individual rights and interests should be balanced against one another. My approach will innovatively combine a theory-informed with an empirical methodology, investigating prisoners' preferences and legitimate interests in transfer proceedings, as well as the actual impact of forced and denied transfers on their rehabilitation. This fellowship would thereby allow me to expand my reputation and skills set beyond theoretical research on EU criminal Law and position myself as a leader in the field of international cooperation in criminal justice, thanks to a multidisciplinary legal and criminological approach, and to a broad lens looking at criminal justice, fundamental rights and constitutional aspects. To cement my academic leadership, I would act as co-director of the Durham Centre for Criminal Law and Justice and organise a series of expert workshops to lead a discussion and draft a Manifesto on the relevance and the future of EU Criminal Law Scholarship in the UK after Brexit. Further, I would organise a conference presenting the findings of the research targeted at different academic audience, where I want to expand my reputation, including UK public lawyers, criminal justice lawyers, and international cooperation experts. To establish myself as an academic point of reference among interested practitioners, I would lead an advisory group of practitioners (lawyers and HMPPS authorities in charge of transfers) and prisoners, which will give feedback on the research design and progress, and will have the opportunity to formally endorse the research findings.

通过这个奖学金，我希望通过调查英国脱欧对囚犯国际转移的影响，在刑事司法国际合作领域建立思想领导力。最终目标是为英国当局设计一个脱欧后的政策框架，以指导授权和拒绝囚犯转移。英国收容了9340名外国囚犯，有5700名英国人被拘留在国外。对于被拘留在外国的囚犯，康复可能更加困难，因为他们可能缺乏支持网络（例如，家庭和朋友）以及获得工作和学习机会。为了应对这些挑战，在某些情况下，在国外被定罪的囚犯可以被转移到他们的祖国，并允许在那里完成他们的刑期。在英国脱欧之前，英国可以依靠欧盟法律作为将囚犯转移回欧盟国家的法律的依据。英国脱欧后，英国必须依靠国际法。有趣的是，欧盟和国际法都没有规定转移的权利，而且有争议的是，两者都允许未经囚犯同意转移囚犯。这种可能性受到了批评，理由是未经囚犯同意转移囚犯实际上阻碍了他们的康复，只会支持“清空监狱”，尽管没有实证研究证实这一假设。然而，欧盟法律原则上通过欧盟公民权利和欧盟基本权利宪章提供了比国际法更高水平的个人权利保护。此外，欧盟宪法规范明确要求平衡刑事政策目标与个人权利。英国脱欧后，依靠国际法是否意味着降低囚犯的权利，以及如何与国家的刑事政策目标相平衡的变化，仍然缺乏广泛的讨论。这项研究将使我能够详尽地调查囚犯在转移程序中可以和应该享有多大的决策自主权，以及英国脱欧后这种自主权是否会发生变化，从一个多维的角度来看，这是迄今为止文学所没有的。我将比较欧盟法律、国际法和英国国内法在转移应追求的刑事政策目标方面规定了什么;相关囚犯的权益;以及这些刑事政策目标和个人权益应如何相互平衡。我的方法将创新性地将联合收割机理论与实证方法相结合，调查囚犯在转移程序中的偏好和合法利益，以及强迫和拒绝转移对他们康复的实际影响。这奖学金将使我能够扩大我的声誉和技能设置超越理论研究欧盟刑法和定位自己在刑事司法国际合作领域的领导者，由于多学科的法律的和犯罪学的方法，并在刑事司法，基本权利和宪法方面的广泛透镜。为了巩固我的学术领导地位，我将担任达勒姆刑法与司法中心的联合主任，并组织一系列专家研讨会，以领导讨论并起草一份关于英国脱欧后欧盟刑法奖学金的相关性和未来的宣言。此外，我将组织一次会议，介绍针对不同学术受众的研究结果，我想在那里扩大我的声誉，包括英国公共律师，刑事司法律师和国际合作专家。为了使自己成为感兴趣的从业人员的学术参考点，我将领导一个由从业人员（律师和负责转移的HMPPS当局）和囚犯组成的咨询小组，该小组将对研究设计和进展提供反馈，并将有机会正式认可研究结果。