European Arrest Warrant and "lex Perkovic"

Since 1st July 2013 Croatia has become the 28th member of the European Union. As a result of that it has been engaged into the judicial cooperation among the member states including the use of the European arrest warrant (EAW). The institute requires „…each national judicial authority (the executing judicial authority) to recognise, ipso facto, […] requests for the surrender of a person made by the judicial authority of another Member State…“. However only three days before the accession Croatia adopted national legislation, called “lex Perković“, limiting the usage of the EAW to the crimes committed after 7th August 2002. At first the Article provides brief introduction of the EAW itself. The text consequently continues by the comment on “the request of the double criminality of the act“, and “surrendering of the (Member state’s) own citizens“. Regarding these topics the relevant judgments of both the ECJ and national constitutional courts are mentioned. Next there is explanation of the origin of the legislation’s name followed by the comparison of the “lex Perković” and similar time restrictions made by some other European Union’s countries. The paper also outlines the (law) sanctions Croatia may face in the case of refusing the Brussels’ requests. Finally the author provides his own vision of the future developments of the situation in question.