This book contains the results of a conference organised in 2013 by my chair of Italian and European criminal procedure at the University of Messina on the main developments occurred over the last years in European criminal law from human rights perspective. This initiative was financially supported by the same University of Messina and the Assemblea Regionale Siciliana (ARS), for which I am truly grateful. A special thank goes, again, to Springer Verlag and in particular to Dr. Brigitte Reschke for her interest in publishing our academic works. I am very grateful to all my distinguished colleagues who have written for this book. Moreover, this work constitutes the second step of a wider project (after Transnational Evidence and Multicultural Inquiries in Europe. Developments in EU Legislation and New Challenges for Human Rights-Oriented Criminal Investigations in Cross-border Cases, also published by Springer Verlag), aimed at promoting both young scholars and students of our University to research activities. This is a very demanding task, which certainly requires many efforts and time by all people involved, but I must admit that watching the results of this work, with all its imperfections, fills me with satisfaction and joy. Finally, as always, I wish to conclude thanking my family, my wife Norma and my two little daughters, Anna Lucia and Maria Isabel, for accompanying me in all the steps of my research path.