The European Criminal Law Center of Catania Series – New Series collects monographic works and various contributions on the issues of European integration in criminal matters and the protection of human rights at Union and International level. It intends to respond to the growing need for awareness and information among scholars, legal practitioners and officials regarding the increasingly frequent manifestations of the impact of European law on domestic criminal law and the complex theoretical and application questions that these pose.

Inaugurated in 1997, the year the Center for European Criminal Law was founded, the series today includes a large series of volumes, which mark the significant evolutions of European construction, with particular attention to the implications that these have entailed for national criminal law.

The published volumes also show the fruitful collaborations established with important and prestigious scientific networks, universities, Italian and foreign research centers; with professional associations; and with representatives of the main European institutions.

A special mention deserves the support for the activities of the Center and for the publications included in the series of the European Anti-Fraud Office of the European Commission (OLAF), through the Hercule programme, and of the Educational, Audiovisual, Cultural Executive Agency (EACEA ), through the Erasmus+ – Jean Monnet Support to Associations programme.

The combination of the theoretical-scientific and practical-applicative dimensions that generally characterizes the activities of the European Criminal Law Center finds direct confirmation in the publications published in the Series. The added value of such a transversal approach can be appreciated in the particular interest that these volumes arouse not only among criminal law scholars, but also among legal practitioners (especially magistrates and lawyers who are also addressed by many of the training and in-depth initiatives organized in the center).

The reflection and analysis conducted on issues of crucial current relevance for the European project, with a mostly transversal and multidisciplinary approach, have constituted and continue to constitute an important contribution to the scientific debate at national and European level and a useful tool for updating and in-depth analysis for legal operators, in particular with regard to initiatives and projects under discussion at an institutional level, also providing a privileged channel to influence these decision-making paths.

Since 2016, the Series of the European Criminal Law Center of Catania – New Series has met the requirements required by the national mechanisms for evaluating scientific research envisaged by ANVUR and MIUR, providing for a committee of reviewers, responsible for selecting the works to be included in the Series, on the based on criteria inspired by the quality and merit of the proposed works.