On 2 November Jorrit Rijpma spoke at a workshop organised by the State University of Milan on a preliminary reference of an Italian court.
In the Kinshasa case, the Italian court would like to know from the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxemburg if the EU's legislation against facilitators of irregular migration ("the Facilitators' Package") and Italian implementing legislation is compliant with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Court wonders whether the fact that there is no (compulsory) exception to the criminalisation of the assistance with illegal border crossing, if this is done for humanitarian purposes, is disproportionate.
Academics, lawyers and court clerks discussed the different aspects raised by this case from the point of view of national criminal and constitutional law, as well as European law.