Transnational Criminal Justice Research Articles

Analysis of Fundamental Challenges in the Combat of Transnational Crimes

Transnational Crimes have existed in some form and to some degree since the inception of organized societies. They have remained prominent in popular culture and policies, evolving through different eras, under different political and economic conditions. These crimes encompass various offences ranging from organized to corporate and political crimes. Specifically, some of the crimes that are transnational in nature include human trafficking, cybercrimes, drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, sea piracy, terrorism amongst others. Globalization enlarged their markets, technological advancements accelerated their trends and the internet fostered development of looser transnational criminal networks. Despite the challenges posed by state sovereignty, the International Community have been actively involved in the suppression of transnational crimes. This is evidenced in the evolution of various Suppression Conventions, principal of which is the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). Several International Institutions such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and the International Criminal Police Organization are also in place to combat transnational crimes. The effectiveness of these mechanisms has been clogged by democratic deficits over the development of Transnational Criminal Law, state complicity in transnational crimes, the absence of a transnational criminal justice system amongst other problems. Recommendations were made in the study for the legitimization of Transnational Criminal Law, establishment of an effective central and neutral authority to oversee international cooperation in transnational criminal matters, stronger infusion of human rights safeguards in transnational criminal justice, establishment of a multi-disciplinary team for the investigation and prosecution of transnational crimes amongst other recommendations. The doctrinal research method was adopted for the study as information contained in the research was gathered from consultation of both secondary and primary sources which are related to the subject of discourse.

Conference Report: Current International and Transnational Criminal Law in Africa – Practice, Challenges and Prospects

The African-German Research Network for Transnational Criminal Justice conducted its an-nual conference on 30th and 31st October and on 4th December 2020 online. The theme of the conference was “Current International and Transnational Criminal Law in Africa: Prac-tice, Challenges and Prospects”. The report gives a concise overview of the excellent paper abstracts and presentations of the conference, ranging from concepts of restorative justice and the implementation of international and national criminal offences to legal policy responses and prosecutions in Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda and by the ICC. Several con-ference papers have been published in peer-reviewed law journals and a number of the pro-posals discussed have been partially implemented by national legislators

Why lawyers internationalize and police transnationalize: disjointed criminal justice at the border of the state

This article investigates the socio-genesis of two different types of criminal justice developed at the border of the state. At this border, the field of international criminal justice was differentiated from the field of transnational criminal justice. The article analyzes how elites of these two fields are characterized by distinct relations to the state that structure their ability to affect criminal justice outside of the national context. These professionals worked in parallel in national systems of justice where they accumulated distinct patterns of expertise and access to the state. On the basis of these socio-professional differences, law and police professionals helped define new criminal justice initiatives at the border of the state that deepened the division between them. The development of international criminal justice was dominated by professionals of law whereas transnational criminal justice was built primarily around police professionals. Societal responses to globalized crime are structured by this disjointed space of criminal justice in which legal and police professionals dominate distinct enforcement initiatives.

Biometric statehood, transnational solutionism and security devices: The performative dimensions of the IOM’s MIDAS

This article contributes to border criminology and transnational criminal justice research into the role of transnational actors in shaping practices of global justice, punishment and control, as well as to the criminological analysis of penal technologies. I examine the performative effects of the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) developed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and I argue that these effects are multidimensional. For beneficiary states, the deployment of MIDAS constitutes a performance of sovereign territorial power, affirming membership in the international society of (biometrically capable) states. For the IOM, the development and deployment of MIDAS and carrying out training sessions operate as pedagogical interventions legitimizing the organization as a neutral, technical expert of migration management. Finally, MIDAS itself performatively acts upon its targets, constituting ‘the migrant’ as a governable, potentially risky subject and constituting ‘migration’ as a problem amenable to depoliticized techno-solutionist interventions.

Theatrics of transnational criminal justice: Ethnographies of penality in a global age

This special issue sets out to explore the Theatrics of Transnational Criminal Justice. ‘Why’, we ask, ‘do transnational criminal justice actors perform themselves as they do?’ ‘Why are their representations frequently, if not different from, then often quite dramatized versions of the average reality of their practices?’ ‘What does such dramatization tell us about not only the symbolism but also the structure and state of transnational criminal justice?’ And, more generally, ‘what do such performances of transnational criminal justice reveal about the nature of penal power in a global day and age?’ In probing such questions, the special issue draws together a number of accomplished ethnographers who have been exploring the performative nature of transnational criminal justice issues around the world, considering both international bodies such as Frontex, Europol, UNODC, the ICC as well as the many national actors involved in the prevention, policing and prosecution of border-crossing issues.

Embodiments and frictions of statehood in transnational criminal justice

Outside of criminology, dominant conceptions of postcolonial statehood in the Global South as ‘fragile’ or ‘failed’ have long been criticized. In criminology, however, the theoretical outcomes of this critique have been scarce. In this article we therefore ask how ideals and practices of transnational criminal justice are informed by and productive of specific (Global North) conceptions of statehood. Exploring encounters between transnational and local criminal justice in the context of international state-building in Mali and Liberia, we observe frictions in which statehood divergences and global hierarchies become apparent. Through penal aid, we argue, a particular kind of penal statehood is produced wherein the options of how to perform penality are increasingly limited by the embeddedness in global power asymmetries.

Why lawyers internationalize and police transnationalize: Disjointed criminal justice at the border of the state

This article investigates the socio-genesis written of two different types of criminal justice developed at the border of the state. At this border, the field of international criminal justice was differentiated from the field of transnational criminal justice. The article analyzes how elites of these two fields are characterized by distinct relations to the state that structure their ability to affect criminal justice outside of the national context. These professionals worked in parallel in national systems of justice where they accumulated distinct patterns of expertise and access to the state. On the basis of these socio-professional differences, law and police professionals helped define new criminal justice initiatives at the border of the state that deepened the division between them. The development of international criminal justice was dominated by professionals of law whereas transnational criminal justice was built primarily around police professionals. Societal responses to globalized crime are structured by this disjointed space of criminal justice in which legal and police professionals dominate distinct enforcement initiatives.

Whose Best Practices? The Significance of Context in and for Transnational Criminal Justice Indicators

To what extent is it possible to identify transnational good or best practice and what are the difficulties and challenges in doing so validly? The claim made in this article is that it may be helpful to examine the spread of global social indicators as a series of projects that themselves reproduce ideas of what counts as ‘good’ practice. This will help identify the ‘politics of comparison’ in each case. Taking as an example recent calls for criminologists to engage with the global targets for change set by the United Nations, the article discusses the aims of comparison, the uses of indicators, and the way that commensuration misrepresents contexts in the drive to evaluate local conditions in terms of overarching standards. It then revisits the debate concerning the so‐called knowledge and governance ‘effects’ of global social indicators.

The legal geographies of transnational cyber-prosecutions: extradition, human rights and forum shifting

ABSTRACTThis article describes legal and human rights issues in three cases of transnational online offending involving extradition requests by the United States (US). These cases were selected as all suspects claimed the negative impacts of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) were sufficient to deny extradition on human rights grounds. We demonstrate how recent developments in UK and Irish extradition law raise human rights and prosecutorial challenges specific to online offending that are not met by established protections under domestic and internationally sanctioned approaches to extradition or human rights law. In these cases, although the allegedly unlawful conduct occurred exclusively online and concurrent jurisdiction enables prosecution at both the source and location of harm, we demonstrate why national courts hearing extradition challenges are extremely reluctant to shift the trial forum. We conclude by discussing the implications of the new geographies of online offending for future criminological research and transnational criminal justice.

The Social Structure of Transnational Criminal Justice: A Cluster of Spaces Beyond National Borders

This article analyses elements of the social structure of transnational criminal justice. The main goal of the analysis is to investigate, if the terminology crafted around transnational criminal law as a distinct legal system corresponds to the social structuration of this space as it can be observed in the justice practices that drive it. To enable such an analysis, the article contributes both a theoretical discussion of how best to conceptualise the social spaces of transnational criminal justice as well as, more cautiously, an empirical investigation into the workings of these spaces, focusing the fight against drugs, terrorism, corruption and ecological crimes. Building conceptually on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, the analytical focal point of the article is the practices of transnational criminal justice and the professionals who are active in this space. This raises crucial questions of how the social practices of transnational criminal justice structures usages and developments of the law. Based on the identification and analysis of four separate but interrelated spaces of practice, the article argues that our theoretical understanding of transnational criminal justice and law needs to be recalibrated to take into account the different ways in which it is mobilised to create either security or good governance.

The Social Structure of Transnational Criminal Justice: A Cluster of Spaces beyond National Borders

Abstract This article analyses elements of the social structure of transnational criminal justice. The main goal of the analysis is to investigate if the terminology crafted around transnational criminal law as a distinct legal system corresponds to the social structuration of this space as it can be observed in the justice practices that drive it. To enable such an analysis, the article contributes both a theoretical discussion of how best to conceptualise the social spaces of transnational criminal justice as well as, more cautiously, an empirical investigation into the workings of these spaces, focusing the fight against drugs, terrorism, corruption and ecological crimes. Building conceptually on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, the analytical focal point of the article is the practices of transnational criminal justice and the professionals who are active in this space. This raises crucial questions of how the social practices of transnational criminal justice structures usages and developments of the law. Based on the identification and analysis of four separate but interrelated spaces of practice, the article argues that our theoretical understanding of transnational criminal justice and law needs to be recalibrated to take into account the different ways in which it is mobilised to create either security or good governance.

New Perspectives on the Structure of Transnational Criminal Justice

New Perspectives on the Structure of Transnational Criminal Justice

Book review: Transnational Crime and Criminal Justice

Book review: Transnational Crime and Criminal Justice

Rwanda

Purpose – This paper aims to assess the extent to which Rwanda is prepared to deal with the menace of money laundering, a threat that may well stunt its ambitions to build a strong economy. Design/methodology/approach – This paper used desktop research based on primary and secondary sources. It is based on a review of relevant conventions laws and policies constituting the anti-money laundering legal regime. Findings – Rwanda’s responses are not strong enough to curb the ever growing risk of money laundering. Rwandan economic structure may easily accommodate launderers, given the development policies relating to investments positive political will may help to pre-empt the increase in the crime. Originality/value – Neither academic, editorial or any work whatsoever have been conducted regarding Money Laundering in Rwanda nor has the prosecution ever submitted a case in the courts at least to pave the prosecutorial strategy in the cases of money laundering. This work is of its own and has been reviewed by well-known professors in the domain, namely, Prof Lovell Fernandez, the Director of South African Germany Center for Transnational Criminal Justice.

Securing Defence Rights in Transnational Proceedings

This paper identifies and analyses problems and weaknesses standing in the way of the provision of an effective defence in transnational criminal proceedings. Drawing upon some key findings of the Euroneeds study, it extrapolates results from that examination of eu criminal justice as valid for all transnational justice settings. It is argued that the failure to recognise legally the difference between national and transnational proceedings leads to a lacuna. Transnational criminal law and justice mechanisms are recognised as developed, above all, as tools of repressive criminal procedure leaving individuals facing them stripped of their constitutional identities and corresponding protective rights. It is argued that those creating transnational criminal law and justice mechanisms must recognise and provide for a more balanced system to avoid such contexts acting as constitutional loop-holes and to ensure the provision of defence rights and procedural safeguards in such proceedings.

Editorial<br>Law Should Govern: Aspiring General Principles for Transnational Criminal Justice

‘Law should govern’ reads Aristotle’s apodictic phrase in Politics 3.16 – a phrase which has gone on to form a core aspect of the rule of law. Consequently, justice systems abide by the maxim that disputes are to be settled by impartial and independent courts following predefined procedures and thereby ensuring equality before the law. To abide by these principles is particularly important in the field of criminal justice, because criminal proceedings affect the individual – be it the alleged wrongdoer or the supposed victim – as well as the wider society. Criminal investigations, prosecutions and subsequent trials must closely follow precise procedures, balancing the different interests at stake whilst adhering to general principles of law. This is crucial not only for the protection of the interests of the individuals involved but also necessary in order to safeguard the common interest in securing adherence to the law by government officials and thus upholding political and judicial accountability. These explanations might sound mundane to a community accustomed to the achievements of well-established national criminal justice systems based on coherent procedural rules and their efficient application.

Transjudicial Dialogue and the Rwandan Genocide: Aspects of Antagonism and Complementarity

AbstractThe Rwandan genocide remains one of the most horrific atrocities of the twentieth century, resulting in the death of an estimated 500–800,000 human beings, massacred over a 100-day period. In the fourteen years since the genocide, attempts at justice and reconciliation in Rwanda have involved a delicate interplay between national legal systems and the international legal order. This article examines three fora in which Rwandans have been tried for involvement in the genocide: the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Rwandan courts including Gacaca tribunals, and French attempts to exercise universal jurisdiction. Using Rwanda as a case study, the article illustrates the issues, concerns, and difficulties that arise when multiple jurisdictions assert a right to exercise criminal jurisdiction over the perpetrators of serious atrocity crimes. Beginning with a discussion of the political context, this article considers what the competing narratives and litigation in various fora have meant for the project of international and transnational criminal justice. Cases involving the commission of atrocities pose unique challenges for the international legal order. As the normative structure of international criminal law has arguably been strengthened, political constraints increasingly come to the fore. As illustrated by Rwanda, universal jurisdiction or other bases of jurisdiction may remain necessary vehicles for justice and reconciliation, or, at the very least, they may serve as a catalyst for change in Rwanda itself.

Cosmopolitanism and the Need for Transnational Criminal Justice: The Case of the International Criminal Court

Cosmopolitanism and the Need for Transnational Criminal Justice: The Case of the International Criminal Court

Theaters of Justice: Arendt in Jerusalem, the Eichmann Trial, and the Redefinition of Legal Meaning in the Wake of the Holocaust

Previous articleNext article No AccessTheaters of Justice: Arendt in Jerusalem, the Eichmann Trial, and the Redefinition of Legal Meaning in the Wake of the HolocaustShoshana FelmanShoshana Felman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 27, Number 2Winter, 2001 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/449006 Views: 54Total views on this site Citations: 28Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 2000 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Sahar Ghumkhor Charleston and Christchurch and the Politics of Postracial Forgiveness, ReOrient 7, no.11 (May 2022).https://doi.org/10.13169/reorient.7.1.0004Jo-Anne Dillabough Higher education, violent modernities and the ‘global present’: the paradox of politics and new populist imaginaries in HE, Globalisation, Societies and Education 20, no.22 (Aug 2021): 178–192.https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2021.1954497Nerijus Milerius, Agnė Narušytė, Violeta Davoliūtė, Lukas Brašiškis Cold War Cinema and the Traumatic Turn in Europe, (Aug 2022): 11–36.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07135-5_2Violeta Davoliūtė Local Testimony and the (Un)Silencing of Sexual Violence in Lithuania under German Occupation during WWII, Humanities 10, no.44 (Dec 2021): 129.https://doi.org/10.3390/h10040129David Sausdal, Kjersti Lohne Theatrics of transnational criminal justice: Ethnographies of penality in a global age, Theoretical Criminology 25, no.33 (Jul 2021): 361–378.https://doi.org/10.1177/13624806211029562Zeina Al Azmeh, Joanne Dillabough, Olena Fimyar, Colleen McLaughlin, Shaher Abdullateef, Wissam Aldien Aloklah, Adnan Rashid Mamo, Abdul Hafiz Abdulhafiz, Samir Al Abdullah, Yasser Al Husien, Ammar Al Mohamad Al Ibrahim, Ziad Al Ibrahim, Taiseer Barmu, Abdulnasser Farzat, Bakry Kadan Cultural trauma and the politics of access to higher education in Syria, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 42, no.44 (Feb 2020): 528–543.https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2020.1715922Nidesh Lawtoo The Case of Eichmann Restaged : Arendt, Evil, and the Complexity of Mimesis, Political Research Quarterly 74, no.22 (Apr 2020): 479–490.https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912920911201Violeta Davoliūtė The aesthetics of justice: recognition and the Holocaust in Soviet films of the Thaw, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema 15, no.22 (Apr 2021): 104–121.https://doi.org/10.1080/17503132.2021.1904115Lynne Humphrey The Holocaust and the law: a model of ‘good history’?, Rethinking History 24, no.11 (Oct 2019): 94–115.https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2019.1655852C. 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Review essay: Selling justice: Electronic monitoring and the security industry

Electronic monitoring is not like other criminal justice fads because it is part of a “corrections-commercial complex.” This complex in turn is part of transnational criminal justice enterprises that have connections to the modern security industry. As a marketable product, electronic monitoring appeals to some post-Cold War military defense contractors' need to redesign and diversify technology. “Technofallacies” aside, electronic monitoring is not likely to go away.