International Anti Money Laundering And Soft Law

Adopting a mixed-methods approach, this book assesses the role of soft law as a technique to repress and prevent money laundering. The consequence of the combination of a non-traditional subject matter with the limitations of traditional international law instruments has meant that lawmakers seeking international solutions to the problems of money laundering have had to innovate. This book addresses two fundamental issues in the context of existing international and domestic responses to the problem of money laundering that have hitherto been neglected. These include the nature of the treaty obligations to criminalise money laundering, and the role of soft law as a technique to regulate it globally. The book concludes that international legal harmonisation and approximation of domestic anti-money laundering law through soft law remains helpful in addressing this pressing problem. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Financial Crime, Anti-Money Laundering Law, Regulation, International Soft Law, and Comparative Law.

This highly topical book is an original contribution to the current literature on counter-terrorist financing, compliance and soft law. Specifically, the book focuses on Financial Action Task Force recommendations and counter-terrorism financing legislation.

Anti-Money Laundering is the definitive reference on money laundering and practice. First an outline will be given of the general approach taken by supra-national organisations like the United Nations and the European Council. Next the approach taken by international organisations and initiatives on the basis of the supra-national initiatives will be outlined by senior members of those organisations. A number of countries will then describe their specific prevention legislation. Countries involved will all be member-countries of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering). Finally there will be an overview to enable the reader to make a comparison between the most important topics of money laundering legislation and rules in the different countries.

This book analytically reviews the impact of the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework on the compliance trajectory of a number of jurisdictions to this framework. The work begins by examining the international financial sector reform and its evolution to inculcate the global framework for AML/CFT regulations. It challenges the resulting uniform AML/CFT due to its paradoxical impact on the compliance trajectory of African countries and emerging economies (ACs/EEs). This is done through an examination of the pre-conditions for effective regulation and compliance drivers for ACs/EEs that reveals the behavioural impact of the AML/CFT standards on the bloc of countries. Through the application of agency theory, it explores the relationship between ACs/EEs on the one hand and the international financial institutions that formulate, disseminate and facilitate compliance with the global framework for AML/CFT standards on the other. The remaining chapters review empirically the compliance pressures and resulting compliance trajectory of ACs/EEs with the AML/CFT standards. The final part of the book provides a detailed explanation of the compliance challenges of ACs/EEs and the legitimacy concerns that facilitate this. This book offers a new direction on the impact of global AML/CFT standards on ACs/EEs and contributes to the understanding of the conditions under which the global standards are likely to facilitate proactive compliance within these blocs of countries. As such it will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in this area.

The book provides one of the first accounts of AML/CFT legislation in Australia, sets the international policy context, and outlines key international legal obligations. It assesses its effectiveness and its contribution to the erosion of democracy.

Examining the challenges of using the global anti-money laundering (AML) framework in an uneven global regulatory landscape, this book discusses the difficulties of relating de-regulation, liberalization and conflict of laws to the dynamics of the market economy and demonstrates how the global environment engenders money laundering. It suggests that corruption, general systemic failure and lack of infrastructural capacity in some developing economies are hampering the implementation of laws and regulations. Suggesting that these challenges can be overcome by designing AML regimes more suited to developing economies within the prevailing global climate, the book questions the assumption that that global regimes will be applicable and emphasises the need for more representation of developing economies on the relevant committees. This book is the first of its kind to present the perspective of developing economies and their involvement in AML regimes and should be of interest to those involved in business and commercial law as well as comparative law.

In Rethinking Money Laundering & Financing of Terrorism in International Law: Towards a New Global Legal Order, Roberto Durrieu provides a broad and original analysis of the phenomenon of money laundering, through a thorough examination of the financing of terrorism. The necessity of excluding the financing of terrorism from the legal definition of money laundering is clearly illustrated through extensive, original and comparative research. In addition, the book advocates the recognition of money laundering as an international crime strictu sensu that can be tried by a special international tribunal. The hidden, mutable, complex and global nature of the crime must be addressed multilaterally through a new, integrated and more effective global legal order which is consistent and compatible with civil guarantees and human rights principles. Part I studies the main extra-legal and legal aspects of money laundering by analyzing the meaning, causes and effects of this phenomenon and their link with the financing of terrorism, with special attention to the interconnection between the so-called preventive/regulatory AML-CFT system and the punitive approach. Part II provides a global-comparative analysis to determine whether or not the adoption of money laundering offences is consistent with sound principles of criminal law and criminal procedure. Finally, Part III examines the jurisdictional problems with respect to extra-territorial and large-scale money laundering cases. The book offers nuanced and thought-provoking answers to questions regarding the prohibition of money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and the relationship between them, the current state of associated International Law, the need for future action, and the human rights consequences of these crimes.

This monograph offers a comprehensive analysis of the implementation of global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulations in the United States and the European Union. It provides academics, legal professionals and interested readers with a deep understanding of the developments of the AML/CTF legal framework and guides them into the dimension of its most difficult relation with international and European human rights law. The implementation of global anti-money laundering regulations in the United Stated and the European Union has essentially led to the suspension of laws governing privacy and bank secrecy. Banks and other financial institutions now operate as an extension of law enforcement. The current Anti-Money Laundering regime jeopardises the fundamental achievements of the constitutional state. The increasing centralisation and cooperation of the competent authorities in the exchange of personal data information creates a security architecture that leads to a considerable risk of freedom restriction. In particular, the extension of the authorities ́ power of intervention granting them access to citizens ́ personal data without the need for initial suspicion underlines that a substantial part of the constitutional state is at risk. Furthermore, banks appear to use these policies as an instrument to clear legitimate but less profitable customers, in particular those with a migration background. Consequently, the implementation of the AML/CTF legal framework appears to follow a discriminatory path and clearly discloses incompatibility features with respect to the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights of the European Union. This monograph further explores factors contributing to the inefficiency of AML/CTF regulatory and legislative measures. Such factors are identified in inconsistent rules, which make the cooperation among national investigative authorities within the EU and at an international level more challenging. As a result, this work acknowledges regulatory and legislative harmonisation with respect to AML/CTF regimes as a central tool to successfully improve the effectiveness of AML/CTF regimes, while preserving the individual right to privacy, due process and civil rights.