Introduction: Is There a Fight against Impunity in the EU Legal System?

Luisa Marin Stefano Montaldo Impunity is a deep-rooted and recurring concern for criminal law, which questions the actual capacity of a penal system to avoid a crime going unpunished and to more generally secure sound and effective administration of justice. This concept embodies a legitimate objective in the public interest and usually triggers institutional and normative reactions aimed at making sure that justice is done. At the same time, leaning on the fine thread between exercise of public coercive powers and protection of fundamental rights, impunity also involves the sphere of victims and (alleged) perpetrators of crimes, because it is closely connected to the search for justice in individual cases and to the inherent limits of substantive and procedural criminal law stemming from constitutional principles. Even though the concept at issue recalls the basic idea of escaping punishment, its ultimate meaning is elusive and encompasses an expanding scale of implications.