The book concludes with situating the EAEU legal order within the indicia developed in Chapter 1 demonstrating whether and how these are fulfilled for the autonomous legal order to emerge. There are certainly some manifestations thereof, such as the Court’s move to recognize and incorporate the discourse of major doctrines relevant for legal order autonomy. Nevertheless, it has troubles demonstrating some of the indicia, and the power struggle between the Member States and EAEU institutions has resulted in limitations, particularly running the risk of misapplication of Union law and fragmentation of the legal system, as well as endangering the ability of the legal order for self-maintenance. While this leads to ‘fragile autonomy’, there are embedded premises, which can help in overcoming this, if such a desire prevails. The book spells out some concrete ways to do so.

Chapter 3 sets out the functioning of the EAEU in terms of its institutional structure and decision-making. It is particularly focused on the Eurasian Economic Commission as the main regulatory body due to its alleged supranational character. This chapter challenges the idea of supranationality by uncovering the predominantly intergovernmental mode of operation not only of the EAEU as such, but also of the Commission, which has implications for legal order autonomy. Another focus of the chapter is the Court and its structure as the major institution relevant for legal order autonomy. The chapter analyses the history of its establishment and the rules regarding its formation raising the issue of independence of the judges and the institution as relevant for the Court’s ability to play a role in the formation of the autonomous legal order.

Chapter 1 sets the scene by exploring the concept of legal order autonomy, which is used in the following chapters as an analytical framework for the analysis of the EAEU legal order. The chapter gives an overview of the notions of autonomy and autonomous legal order in their various forms. It further takes the EU as an exemplar autonomous legal order, analyses its two dimensions – internal and external – and uses a literary reference to capture it. Further, given the prima facie interrelations between autonomy and supranationality, the chapter situates the latter in this context, which links to the exploration in Chapter 3 of the EAEU’s claim that it has established the first supranational institution in the region. As there is no single doctrine of legal order autonomy nor a definition thereof, the chapter develops a number of indicia of legal order autonomy to be used in the book to analyse the EAEU, and explains why indicia are preferred to criteria in this book. As the idea of a legal order autonomy is largely a judicial construct, it is presented as a particular narrative of its own.

European Criminal Law has developed into a complex, jagged subject matter, which at the same time has become increasingly important for everyday criminal law practice. On the one hand, this work aims to do comprehensive justice to the complexity of the matter without sacrificing readability. In order to achieve this, the book’s structure enables legal scholars and experienced practitioners to access the information relevant to them in a targeted manner and, at the same time, enables less-oriented readers to gain access to European Criminal Law. Thus, the volume both answers basic questions and offers discussion in more specialised areas. Written by experts in the field, the book offers discussions that are both of the highest academic standards and accessibly readable.

European Criminal Law in fact includes EU Law, influenced by European institutions and stemming from Member States agreements. At the same time, it is Council-of-Europe–inspired Law be it through minimum guarantees by the ECHR or through the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) influence on national criminal laws and procedures. Yet, one searches in vain for a European Criminal Code. Against the rumor that in consequence, European Criminal Law as such does not exist, the first chapter seeks to put up the umbrella and discuss and reveal sources and resources of current European Criminal Law and the intersections of EU Law on the one side and Council-of-Europe–inspired Law on the other side. That will in the end offer a panoramic view constituting European Criminal Law as the sum of European Union law imposing sanctions applicable in all Member States together with (Europeanised) national criminal law influenced by European law and Council-of-Europe inspired and set against European institutions and instruments that aim at ensuring effective criminal prosecution.

This chapter explores the origins and evolution of supranationality. It contrasts different conceptualizations across various (legal) disciplines by singling out four important contexts which have informed the notion: the turn to modern international law, the establishment of the European Communities, EU law scholarship and the law of IOs. The chapter demonstrates how supranationality is construed through both international law and EU law, which is one of the very reasons its meaning is difficult to pin down. Supranationality, as a doctrinal concept, appears to be trapped by the unresolved quandary of whether EU law is still to be conceived of as being part of international law.