Introduction. The Role and Protection of Third Parties in Criminal Proceedings: Old and New Challenges for Fundamental Rights and Procedural Safeguards

This Chapter introduces the topic we are dealing with and discuss briefly the main aspects of the role and protection of third parties. The increasing expansion and extension of criminal proceedings, which are capable of reaching numerous individuals and infringing upon their rights due to the use of digital instruments, call for the need to examine which fundamental rights of third parties can be limited, the legal requirements to carry out such a restriction and the procedural safeguards recognised to the addressed subjects. However, in order to do so, a preliminary definition of the very concept of third parties is essential. But, since the thirdness is a relativistic concept that presupposes two other parties, we cannot address such an issue without examining the assets of formal participants in criminal proceedings. This is the reason why the book adopts a two-levels comparative approach: firstly, the comparative method deals with selected national legal orders in order to understand the kind of involvement and the safeguards of third parties in domestic procedural activities; secondly, the comparative analysis is carried out also with regard to international and supranational Courts, which are attentive and responsive to the urge of strengthening the protection of categories of people different from the formal parties.