The necessary and desirable features of multiple offence-sentencing: towards a more clear European dimension of ne bis in idem, proportionality and equality

This project mainly focuses on the lack of a common judicial philosophy in criminal matters between the EU Member States. More specifically, the judicial principles that could have an impact on prosecuting or sentencing multi-offenders (i.e. offenders who have committed more than one offence before having been finally convicted for at least one of them) will be the subject of this project. The current lack of a common philosophy has resulted in a considerably different view on the prosecution and the punishment of multi-offenders in the different EU Member States. Multi-offenders are often awarded a penalty discount, meaning that the total sentence imposed for having committed multiple offences will almost nowhere equal the sum of the different penalties which each of the individual offences merits. This so-called ‘bulk discount’ (a discount for having committed a bulk of offences) is granted, regardless of the number of criminal proceedings in which the offences are tried. Oddly, in some EU Member States, this penalty discount ceases to exist within an EU context and more specifically when the offences are prosecuted in not one, but in multiple Member States of the EU. This finding is not only in stark contrast with the principle of mutual trust, but also and foremost raises the question to what extent some procedural and fundamental safeguards are compromised when making a distinction between national and transnational cases of multi-offending.

Personal data

Author: Nele Audenaert

University/Institution: Ghent University (Belgium)

Email: Nele.Audenaert@UGent.be

Picture:
NeleAudenaert.jpg

Phd Document

Provisional title: The necessary and desirable features of multiple offence-sentencing: towards a more clear European dimension of ne bis in idem, proportionality and equality

Name of supervisor/s: Prof. dr. Wendy De Bondt

Language: English

Starting date: 2018-01-01

Excpected end date: 2022-04-15