The Role of Moral Standards in Some Selected Dimensions of Law and Criminology: The International Approach

Abstract

Against the background of increasing rates of international and transnational crime and the accompanying increasing role of comparative international criminology, this analysis deals with an emerging set of moral standards in international criminological issues. The author argues that moral issues in criminology are not restricted to the national criminologies of different countries but extend into international comparative criminology. Examples are cited for different types of international crimes in order to demonstrate the existence of this emerging set of moral standards among nations. The second part of the article focuses on the relationship between morality and international human rights. There is a clear need in the international community to focus more on the moral background of human rights and on other associations between human rights and morality, many of which are discussed in this work. Just as it is true in the area of national criminologies, in regard to international comparative criminology and international human rights it is also imperative that law and morality "should not be allowed to drift apart too often and too conspicuously, as otherwise the law would lose one of its strongest supports"