Histories Of Transnational Criminal Law

This edited collection provides an in-depth account of the history of key developments in transnational criminal law. While the history of international criminal law is now a much written about topic, the origins of most modern transnational criminal laws are not well understood. Histories of Transnational Criminal Law provides for the first time a set of legal histories of state efforts to combat and cooperate against transnational crime. With contributions from a group of word-leading experts, this edited volume traverses a range of topics, beginning with the normative, intellectual, and institutional histories of transnational criminal law. It then moves to the histories of specific transnational crimes ranging across eras from piracy to cybercrime, and finishes by examining jurisdiction, modes of liability, different forms of procedural cooperation, and the predicament of the individual in transnational criminal law. The book highlights specific issues and how they have been resolved, in the loose assemblage of norms, institutions, and practices that constitutes transnational criminal law.

Histories of Transnational Crime provides a broad, historical framework for understanding the developments in research of transnational crime over the centuries. This volume provides examples of transnational crime, and places them in a broad historical context, which has so far been missing from this field of study. The contributions to this comprehensive volume explore the causes and historical precursors of six main types of transnational crime: -piracy -human smuggling -arms trafficking -drug trafficking -art and antique trafficking -corporate crime. The historical contributions demonstrate that transnational crime is not a novel phenomenon of recent globalization and that, beyond organized crime groups, powerful individuals, governments and business corporations have been heavily involved. Through a systematic historical and contextual analysis of these types of transnational crime, the contributions to this volume provide a fundamental understanding of why and how various forms of transnational crime are still present in the contemporary world. In the past two decades, the study of transnational crime has developed from a subset of the study of organized crime to its own recognized field of study, covering distinct societal threats and requiring a particular approach.

"Casebook on international and transnational criminal law"--

Philip Jessup coined the term "transnational law" in his Storrs Lecture on Jurisprudence delivered in 1956 to describe law that regulates activities or actions that transcend national borders. The term redefined the development and practice of the law, and became a distinct field of study. In 2001, Neil Boister applied Jessup’s concept to the field of criminal law and identified the emergence of transnational criminal law in a formative article published in the European Journal of International Law. Inspired by Boister’s work, the editors of the journal Transnational Legal Theory sought contributions from leading academics and practitioners for a symposium issue on transnational criminal law. In their papers, the authors built upon and developed novel approaches to legal issues arising in an increasingly globalized world, where both crimes and the regulation of crimes transcend borders. The publication of this book marks the sixtieth anniversary of Jessup’s seminal lecture and exemplifies the significant impact that Jessup, and later Boister, have had on legal scholarship and practice in the area of criminal law. We are honoured to publish the symposium as a monograph and to contribute to this rapidly evolving field. This book was previously published as a special issue of Transnational Legal Theory.

National borders are permeable to all types of illicit action and contraband goods, whether it is trafficking humans, body parts, digital information, drugs, weapons, or money. Whilst criminals exist in a borderless world where territorial boundaries allow them to manipulate different markets in illicit goods, the authorities who pursue them can remain constrained inside their own jurisdictions. In a new edition of his ground-breaking work, Boister examines how states must cooperate to tackle some of the greatest security threats in this century so far, analyses to what extent vested interests have determined the course of global policy and law enforcement, and illustrates how responding to transnational crime itself becomes a form of international relations which reorders global political power and becomes, at least in part, an end in itself. Arguing that transnational criminal law is currently geared towards suppressing criminal activity, but is not as committed to ensuring justice, Boister suggests that it might be more strongly influenced by individual moral panics and a desire for criminal retribution than an interest in ensuring a proportional response to offences, protection of human rights, and the preservation of the rule of law.

This book presents the first comprehensive study of international criminal jurisdiction over organized crime and demonstrates the potential of international law to bring leaders of cartels and trafficking rings to justice.

States criminalize a wide range of transnational offences, such as piracy, human trafficking, drug trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, and cybercrime. This book provides an introduction to this developing area of law, setting out what transnational crimes are, and how states can establish jurisdiction over them and enforce it.

Certain types of crime are increasingly being perpetrated across national borders and require a unified regional or global response to combat them. Transnational criminal law covers both the international treaty obligations which require States to introduce specific substantive measures into their domestic criminal law schemes, and an allied procedural dimension concerned with the articulation of inter-state cooperation in pursuit of the alleged transnational criminal. The Routledge Handbook of Transnational Criminal Law provides a comprehensive overview of the system which is designed to regulate cross border crime. The book looks at the history and development of the system, asking questions as to the principal purpose and effectiveness of transnational criminal law as it currently stands. The book brings together experts in the field, both scholars and practitioners, in order to offer original and forward-looking analyses of the key elements of the transnational criminal law. The book is split into several parts for ease of reference: Fundamental concepts surrounding the international regulation of transnational crime. Procedures for international cooperation against alleged transnational criminals including jurisdiction, police cooperation, asset recovery and extradition. Substantive crimes covered by transnational criminal law analysing the current legal provisions for each crime. The implementation of transnational criminal law and the effectiveness of the system of transnational criminal law. With chapters from over 25 authorities in the field, this handbook will be an invaluable reference work for student and academics and for policy makers with an interest in transnational criminal law.