The United Nations And Transnational Organized Crime

This volume examines transnational criminal organizations and their activities.

Transnational organized crime poses a serious threat to the international community. This volume, the product of a UN conference, discusses the dangers of transnational organized crime and identifies forms of regional, national and international co-operation for its prevention and control, including intelligence networks, preventive strategies, extradition treaties, criminalizing participation in criminal organizations and the elaboration of an international convention. The reduction and subsequent containment of transnational organized crime require governments not only to recognize the seriousness of the challenge, but also to allocate resources commensurate with this challenge. The authors warn that should the international community fail to do this, the prospects for democratic government and the rule of law will be gloomy.

Since the end of the Cold War, states have become increasingly engaged in the suppression of transnational organised crime. The existence of the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocols demonstrates the necessity to comprehend this subject in a systematic way. Synthesizing the various sources of law that form this area of growing academic and practical importance, International Law and Transnational Organised Crime provides readers with a thorough understanding of the key concepts and legal instruments in international law governing transnational organised crime. The volume analyses transnational organised crime in consideration of the most relevant subareas of international law, such as international human rights and the law of armed conflict. Written by internationally recognized scholars in international and criminal law as well as respected high-level practitioners, this book is a useful tool for lawyers, public agents, and academics seeking straightforward and comprehensive access to a complex and significant topic.

The most sustained and penetrating study of the phenomenon of transnational organized crime was completed by various UN agencies in an ongoing project whose principal milestone is the 1997 Convention on Organized Crime. This book presents all relevant texts in chronological order from 1975 to 1998, with additional material explaining the background of the project. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

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Examining the various sources of law that form this area of growing academic and practical importance, International Law and Transnational Organised Crime provides readers with a thorough understanding of the key concepts and legal instruments in international law governing transnational organised crime.

Though the provision of illicit goods and services is far from being a new phenomenon, today's global economic environment has allowed transnational organized crime an unprecedented capacity to challenge states. The authors of this book examine the trends underlying the explosion of transnational organized crime and consider possible responses. Emphasizing the difficulties encountered by individual states in their efforts to deal with this security dilemma, they highlight the growing importance of multilateral initiatives.

This book explains the history and development of organized crime and clearly demonstrates the economics and practices of crime in the era of globalization.

This book offers a comprehensive, article-by-article legal commentary on the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols on trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, and trafficking in firearms and ammunition. The Convention- often referred to by the acronym UNTOC- was approved by the UN General Assembly on 15 November 2000 and made available for governments to sign at a high-level conference in Palermo, the heartland of the Italian Mafia, on 12-15 December 2000. For this reason, UNTOC is sometimes also referred to as the 'Palermo Convention'. The Convention entered into force on 29 September 2003. The purpose of UNTOC is to promote cooperation to prevent and combat transnational organized crime more effectively. UNTOC seeks to promote consistency among national legal systems and set standards for domestic laws so that States parties can effectively combat transnational organized crime. UNTOC is supplemented by three protocols: the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Air, and Sea, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components, and Ammunition. Article by article, this books presents the text of each provision of the Convention and the Protocols, followed by a systematic analysis of their background and negotiating history, their interpretation by the Conference of the Parties and its working groups, in judicial decisions by domestic and international courts, , in the academic literature, and in official material published by international organisations, chief among them the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the guardian of UNTOC and the Protocols. The authors offer critical, scholarly commentary. The book serves as a compendium for those using, researching, or studying provisions under UNTOC and the Protocols and as a handbook for those charged with implementing and enforcing them.