ABSTRACT
Cross-border cooperation between the police and judicial authorities has increased enormously in recent decades. Such cooperation is no longer limited to that between adjoining countries or between countries that are members of the same continental (or subcontinental) quasi-federal political alliance; today, it extends around the world. Since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty (1991), much has changed in this regard in Europe, certainly at European Union level. Not only has police and judicial cooperation between the various Member States become closer and more refined in a whole range of ways, but both the individual Member States and the European Union as a whole are working ever more closely on such matters with countries and regions all around the world (Meeusen and Straetmans 2007, Occhipinti 2003, Sabatier 2001).
