International Judicial Cooperation and the EU Principle of Mutual Recognition – towards a Convergence of Systems?

This chapter focuses on the investigations carried out by the ICC in cooperation with several EU institutions (as well as several EU Member States) in connection with international crimes committed during the war between Russia and Ukraine. The idea is proposed that, on the one hand, EU cooperation instruments can serve as an inspiring model for cooperation between ICC States Parties and the ICC itself. On the other, that, in this investigation, what several scholars proposed in the first years after the Court’s entry into force comes true: the ICC should play a predominantly ‘Circuit Rider’ role by facilitating State-level investigations and prosecutions of international crimes, and by exploiting transnational networks. These networks, thanks to their soft power, may be able, in comparison to top-down enforcement, to achieve effective results in the implementation of international criminal justice, which is still so strongly linked to the national interests of each State. The topic examined appears interesting because the actions taken by the EU, through its competent institutions and its Member States, to combat, investigate and help prosecute the commission of international crimes in the war conflict between Russia and Ukraine, cover, albeit with different modalities and measures, all the areas to which this research has been extended (arrest and surrender, collection and exchange of evidence, asset freezing and confiscation).