Creation of a European Judicial Information Centre

Recommendation 584 (1970)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 24 January 1970 (19thSitting) (see Doc. 2700, report of theLegal Affairs Committee). Text adopted bythe Assembly on 24 January 1970 (19thSitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering that theincrease in mobility of population has multiplied the number of cases where aperson brought before a criminal court may have a previous record in a stateother than that in which he is tried ;

2. Considering that underpresent circumstances judges may receive information from their own state, theoffender's state of residence, birth and nationality but that it may beexceptionally difficult for judges to find out whether the offender has beenconvicted in other states ;

3. Considering that it is highly desirablethat judges be provided with the relevant information on offenders, in order toenable them to decide on the punishment to be imposed, in particular onalternatives to imprisonment, such as suspended sentences and probation, whichare more and more frequently applied ;

4. Considering that theinformation at present being transmitted by Interpol concerns only certaincategories of particularly serious offences and that neither the existingbilateral agreements nor the European Convention on Mutual Assistance inCriminal Matters can ensure that the necessary information on judicialantecedents becomes known ;

5. Considering that national legislationscontain increasing numbers of provisions relating to probation or thesuspension of sentence, combined with supervision of the offender, whichrequire far fuller information to be available to law officers than the passingof a sentence ;

6. Desirous of completing and simplifying the existingexchanges by a permanent multilateral information system ;

7. Considering that there is need for a "Judicial Information Centre" withinthe European framework which would centralise the information on foreigners,having been convicted under criminal law in one of the member states of theCouncil of Europe of offences other than those of minor gravity ;

8. Expressing the wish that such a "European Judicial Information Centre",if possible, may also centralise other essential information about the offenderand relevant to the offence,

9. Recommends that the Committee ofMinisters instruct the European Committee on Crime Problems (ECCP) to studywhether it is expedient to set up a "European Judicial Information Centre"along the lines set out above, with special reference to the nature and volumeof present and estimated future requirements, the costs and benefits of thevarious technical means available and desirable organisational structure of theCentre, together with the advisability of adding a Protocol to the EuropeanConvention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters or of drawing up a newEuropeaninstrument.