Comparison of EU and Australian cross-border law enforcement strategies

Abstract

Police cooperation strategies between member states of the European Union (EU) and between Australian federal, state and territory jurisdictions are an important aspect of their fight against cross-border crime. While the abolition of controlled borders is still a recent phenomenon in the EU, Australian states and territories effectively abolished border controls with the advent of Federation in 1901. Australian state police forces have therefore a long history of cooperating across borders, and thus certain aspects of cooperation in Australia may be usefully compared with cooperation between EU member states. In Australia, only within the last decade have agencies established a common police database and legal measures such as mutual recognition of warrants. It remains the case that most police cooperation strategies between Australian jurisdictions continue to rely on informal agency-to-agency agreements such as memoranda of understanding. The EU similarly has limited competence in this field, with member state cooperation limited to partial harmonisation of laws regulating police cooperation between EU member states. The most advanced cooperation strategies take place on bilateral or multilateral levels, and the impact of EU level policies on police practices remains limited. This thesis analyses the historical development of police cooperation strategies in both systems from a comparative, socio-legal perspective. It first outlines the development of police cooperation strategies in the EU and Australia since the late 19th century. A focus lies on the evolution of legal harmonisation since the 1950s - in particular harmonisation of criminal law and procedure and the establishment of common legal frameworks - and practitioner responses to these developments. While legal harmonisation in the EU is the result of interaction between regional practitioner initiatives and harmonised EU responses, Australian formal regional cooperation does not exist and the policing of its territory relies mainly on federal agencies. Inter-agency cooperation in Australia is a result of the harmonisation of criminal law and procedure and the application of mutual recognition, while the EU more prominently employs broad legal frameworks. However, with a view to their application in practice this thesis assesses the potential transfer of the different approaches to the other system. As legal harmonisation in Australia and the EU is relatively undeveloped, the analysis includes other strategies, such as education and training, common forums, institutions and agencies that could potentially compensate the lack of legal uniformity. These strategies have evolved to a similar extent in both systems and are considered a necessary accessory to legal harmonisation by practitioners. However, this does not hold true for two particular agencies, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Europol, which experience criticism in both systems. These agencies as well as selected regional cooperation initiatives and harmonised laws and legal frameworks are consequently examined in three case studies with a view to their potential applicability in the other system. The thesis highlights the importance of a combined approach between legal harmonisation, sociologically oriented strategies and regional cooperation initiatives to overcome cultural, structural, organisational, historical and many other differences between jurisdictions in both systems and consequently, identifies areas of further research. Show more