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

通过这项奖学金，我希望通过调查英国脱欧对国际囚犯转移的影响，在刑事司法国际合作领域建立思想领导地位。最终目标是为英国当局设计一个脱欧后的政策框架，以指导囚犯转移的授权和拒绝。英国关押着9340名外国囚犯，还有5700名英国人被关押在国外。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的机会。为了弥补这些挑战，在国外被定罪的囚犯在某些情况下可以被转移到他们的祖国，并允许他们在那里完成刑期。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依据。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考虑到转移的权利，而且有争议的是，两者都允许在未经他们同意的情况下转移囚犯。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妨碍了他们的康复，只会支持“清空监狱”，尽管没有实证研究证实这一假设。然而，通过欧盟公民权利和欧盟基本权利宪章，欧盟法律原则上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。然而，关于英国脱欧后回归国际法是否意味着降低囚犯权利，以及如何改变这些权利与各国刑事政策目标之间的平衡，目前还缺乏广泛的讨论。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，以及在英国脱欧后这种自主权是否会发生变化，这是迄今为止文献所没有的多维视角。我将比较欧盟法、国际法和英国国内法在刑事政策目标方面的规定；罪犯的有关权益；以及这种刑事政策目标和个人权益应该如何相互平衡。我的方法将创新地结合理论和实证方法，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。通过多学科的法律和犯罪学方法，以及对刑事司法、基本权利和宪法方面的广泛关注，该奖学金将使我能够扩大自己在欧盟刑法理论研究之外的声誉和技能，并将自己定位为刑事司法国际合作领域的领导者。为了巩固我的学术领导力，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，就英国脱欧后欧盟刑法奖学金的相关性和未来进行讨论，并起草一份宣言。此外，我将组织一个会议，针对不同的学术受众展示研究结果，我想扩大我的声誉，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者的学术参考点，我将领导一个由从业者（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，并有机会正式认可研究结果。

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.