Monday 28 June 2021, 14:00-17:00h.

First Webinar:
Silence is not empty: it is full of answers. Findings from comparative socio-legal research on the meaning and implications of the right to silence in police interrogations.

What is the meaning of the right to silence at police interrogations in the four jurisdictions? To what extent is it protected in their laws and day-to-day practices of judges, prosecutors, police and defence lawyers? What are the consequences of exercising the right to silence at the investigative stage of the proceedings? What is the relationship, if any, between the right to silence and other procedural rights, such as the right to information or legal assistance? In this webinar, researchers from the four jurisdictions will present the findings from socio-legal research, which sought to address these and other questions relevant to the use and implications of the right to remain silent in practice.

Speakers:
Commentator: Prof. dr. Lonneke Stevens, Full Professor of Criminal Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Belgium: Prof. dr. Miet Vanderhallen, Associate Professor in Legal Psychology, University of Antwerp
• Ireland: Prof. Yvonne Daly, Professor of Criminal Law and Evidence, School of Law and Government at Dublin City University
• Italy: Prof. dr. Michele Panzavolta, Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, KU Leuven, and dr. Angelo Marletta, Postdoctoral Researcher, Universite Libre de Bruxelles
• Netherlands: Dr. Anna Pivaty, Assistant Professor, Radboud University Nijmegen

Tuesday 29 June 2021, 15:00-17:00h.

Second Webinar:
Towards an evidence-based approach to the right to silence in criminal proceedings: debunking myths and taking action.  

The right to silence in criminal proceedings is one of the most politically debated procedural rights. Its very existence is often brought into question, for instance, in respect of suspects of terrorism or organised crime. The legal and political discourse on the right to silence is dominated by myths, such as that “only the guilty remain silent” or that the “right to silence prevents effective investigations.” The right to silence and other procedural rights of suspects are threatened by the drive towards efficiency in criminal legal systems. The increasing sensitivity of criminal justice systems to the interests of ensuring public safety and the concern of delivering ‘the truth’ to the victims also puts the right to silence under risk. In this webinar, academics, policy-makers and practitioners will reflect on these and other obstacles to the effective protection of the right to silence in criminal proceedings. They will also critically reflect on the various ways of action that are available on the European and domestic levels to improve the quality of discourse around the right to silence and its effectuation in practice.

Speakers:

• Shalom Binchy, Practising Solicitor with expertise in criminal defence and mental health law. Member of the Policing Authority in Ireland.
• Dr. Dorris de Vocht, assistant professor of criminal law and criminology, UM. Substitute judge Limburg district court.

• Emmanuelle Debouverie, senior legal policy officer, Fair Trials.

• Dr. Fabien LE BOT, Legal Officer, DG Justice, European Commission

Biographies:

Yvonne Daly:
Yvonne is Professor of Criminal Law and Evidence in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. She is an expert on criminal evidence and procedure, with a specific research focus on effective criminal defence and the legal regulation of criminal investigations. She engages in detailed doctrinal and comparative work across European and international jurisdictions, and empirical research which explores the law in action, as compared with the theory. Her research is grounded in fundamental human rights instruments and advocates for the practical and effective protection of individual rights, specifically in relation to suspects under criminal investigation. Professor Daly is the Principal Investigator for Ireland on the EmpRiSe project, having previously led the Irish team on the SUPRALAT project also.

Emmanuelle Debouverie:
Emmanuelle leads Fair Trials’ work on access to a lawyer and legal aid in Europe. Before joining Fair Trials, she practised as a criminal defence lawyer in Brussels, Boston and Paris between 2010 and 2019. She holds qualifying degrees in Belgian law (Université libre de Bruxelles), US law (New York University), French law (Paris-Nanterre) and English law (Essex University). She is admitted to the Paris and Massachusetts bars. She has published in the field of access to justice and legal aid for the most vulnerable people, and is a teaching assistant at the Université libre de Bruxelles in comparative law. 

Michele Panzavolta: 
Michele is Associate Professor of Criminal law at KU Leuven. Prior to that he worked as assistant professor at the University of Maastricht and held post-doctoral research positions at the University of Bolognas and Urbino. His work focuses on European and comparative criminal law, with particular attention to procedural rights, confiscation, cybercrime and intelligence. He is a qualified attorney at the Bar of Bologna.

Lonneke Stevens: 
Lonneke is professor of criminal law and criminal procedure at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She has worked as a lawyer and substitute judge. Earlier, interdisciplinary research concerned the right to silence and the presence of counsel during police interrogations. Her current research focuses on criminal evidence (and statistics), and (the regulation of) digital police investigation.

Dorris de Vocht:
Dorris is assistant professor at the department of criminal law & criminology in Maastricht University. She focuses on criminal procedure and procedural rights. She has extensive expertise in comparative criminal procedure and has published profusely on this topic. She has participated in and led several EU-funded projects. She is also a substitute judge at the District Court of Limburg.​ 

Anna Pivaty:
Anna is Assistant Professor of Criminal Law at Radboud University, Netherlands and formerly postdoctoral researcher at Maastricht University. She has extensive experience on socio-legal and comparative research on criminal justice and fair trials rights. She has also initiated SUPRALAT and NETPRALAT projects to promote training of defence lawyers in active defence at the investigative stage of the proceedings across Europe. Her areas of interest include: procedural rights of suspects, criminal defence and the investigative stage of the criminal proceedings.

Fabien le Bot: 
Fabien holds a PhD in European Union Law from University Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). His dissertation focused on the Principle of Institutional Balance in EU Law. He obtained the Thesis Prize of the European Group of Public Law. His research explores the relations of power in the European Union legal system and their evolution after the Lisbon Treaty, notably through an analysis of specific EU policies, seen as outcomes of political negotiations.
Fabien currently works in the field of procedural criminal law in the European Commission, dealing in particular with procedural rights as well as mutual recognition of judgments in criminal matters.
 
Shalom Binchy: 
Shalom qualified as a Solicitor in 1996 and has over 25 years of experience representing clients in complex cases in Criminal and Mental Health Law. Shalom has represented clients in several ground-breaking cases paving the way for constitutional and legislative reform and increased protection to clients.
Shalom is a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of Ireland, is a member of the Policing Authority and engages with the Government and other bodies to advocate for reform in the criminal justice system. She is a former Chair of the Society's Criminal Law Committee.
 
Miet Vanderhallen: 
Miet obtained her PhD In September 2007: ‘The working alliance in police interviewing’. From 2007 she joined the Faculty of Law at Antwerp university and is currently an associate professor in legal psychology. Miet Vanderhallen is co-author of various peer-reviewed articles, chapters and books within the field of criminology and legal psychology, particularly on investigative interviewing and she is a review editor for Frontiers for Psychology. She regularly presents at (inter)national conferences. Moreover, she is a member of the general assembly of the Centre for Police studies and a member of the European Association on Psychology and Law, and of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group.

Angelo Marletta: 
Angelo obtained his Ph.D. in European Criminal Law in 2013 at the University of Bologna defending a thesis on the principle of proportionality and the European Arrest Warrant and, before joining the Centre de Droit Européen, he carried out post-doctoral research at KU Leuven and the University of Luxembourg on several transnational research projects. Between 2018 and 2020, he also worked as an assistant in the European Parliament following the work of the parliamentary committees Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Budgetary Control (CONT).

Co-funded by the Justice Programme (2014-2020) of the European Union.
 

Participation is free.
Registration by June 25 (via the green button on the right side of this page).
Times are CET.