The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol): issues of legal ideology

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The article is devoted to the problem of identifying the ideological and legal foundations of international cooperation of the criminal police. The paper considers International law as a special ideological form of law. One of the functions of this law is the function of organizing cooperation in combating crime at the international level. The segment of international law governing criminal police cooperation within an organization such as Interpol is primarily involved in the implementation of this function.MATERIALS AND METHODS. Using a socio-axiological approach, which studies the law not as a set of norms, but as a system of conventional values based on needs and interests of social actors in the process of legal discourse, the authors analyse the legal values and ideas that underlie the activities of Interpol. The paper studies international regulations of the Interpol activities as well as the regulations of the activities of the National Central Bureau of Interpol of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, also studies theoretical materials (articles and studies), that could shed light on the aspects of formation and development of these ideas and values on the doctrinal level. The paper undertakes functional and structural analyze of the legal ideology of Interpol. It utilizes dialectical, system, formal-logical and comparative law methods.RESEARCH RESULTS. The authors build the theoretical model of the legal ideology structure and determine its basic functions. Its contents, i.e. values, ideas and principles, could formally manifest themselves in legal documents on both international and/or national levels, or informally emerge in the public legal discourse in the law enforcement field. On the functional level, the legal ideology of Interpol creates ideological foundations for law enforcement, including legal data base for combating crime and co-operation in law enforcement field and law enforcement practices, legitimizes international co-operation in combating crime, brings together international eff ts in combating crime, and strengthens international co-operation in this field. It also facilitates the universalization of the international law order and creation of legal policies in combating crime.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The legal ideology of Interpol is a complex system employing functional potential, that remains to be studied in details. The unique nature of ideas and values (law values), that lay ground for the legal ideology of Interpol, their high effi ency, derive from its particular functions, proven to be valuable on the modern stage of international co-operation in law enforcement field. The legal ideology of Interpol, in terms of its contents, tends to be very specific on the values level, because it encompasses legal values of conventional nature, as well as legal ideas supporting these values, and principles directed at them. Its contents never stop transforming accordingly to ever changing realities of international relations in the process of uninterrupted public legal discourse in law enforcement field. At the present moment, both its flexibility in terms of contents and functional potential allow us to see it as an important factor contributing to the development of the international law.