In the past twenty years action in respect of the profits of crime has moved rapidly up the criminal justice agenda. Not only may confiscation orders be made,but there are also now serious substantive criminal offences of laundering the proceeds of crime. Moreover, the consequences of the regulatory regimes put in place by the Money Laundering Regulations 1993 and the Financial Services Authority are very significant. This book examines critically the history, theory and practice of all these developments, culminating in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which marks another step in the move towards greater concentration both on the financial aspects of crime and on the internationalisation of criminal law. The Act puts in place the Assets Recovery Agency, which will be central to the strategy of targeting criminal monies and will have power to bring forfeiture proceedings without a prior criminal conviction and to raise assessments to taxation. The author subjects the law of laundering, especially the novel aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Act itself, to thorough analysis and a human rights' audit. Contents: Introduction; The Economics of Money Laundering; Theory: Justifications for Forfeiture, Confiscation, and Criminalisation; History of Forfeiture and Confiscation Provisions; The International Dimension; Forfeiture Provisions; Statutory Confiscation Provisions; Investigatory Powers; Beyond Confiscation - Criminalisation; Acquisition and Deployment of Money for Terrorism; Confiscation without Conviction - 'Civil Recovery'; Money Laundering and the Professions

This book surveys the development of laws surrounding the crime of money laundering and the associated changes in the anti-money laundering (AML) industry. The policy of attempting to deal with crime by attacking its financial products started in the arena of drugs, but quickly moved to organised crime, terrorism, corruption and tax. Now the focus has shifted once again to organised crime and to immigration. In the wake of the failure of the 'war on drugs' a huge amount of money is now being spent on a global surveillance and reporting system, and we do not know whether the system works or not. What Went Wrong With Money Laundering Law? documents the events which, taken independently, could each be seen as rational responses to specific problems and as incremental adjustments to the focus of the law. Taken together, however, it is demonstrated that they have led to significant changes in the law and to the current situation. Underlying the entire AML industry is the crime of money laundering, which, having been devised more to provide a trigger for the reporting machinery than to describe and condemn a particular category of harmful behaviour, is now being used in a far wider range of cases than is appropriate. This book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of criminal and financial law, socio-legal studies and criminology.

The book consists of the keynote papers delivered at the 2012 WG Hart Workshop on Globalisation, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice organised by the Queen Mary Criminal Justice Centre. The volume addresses, from a cross-disciplinary perspective, the multifarious relationship between globalisation on the one hand, and criminal law and justice on the other hand. At a time when economic, political and cultural systems across different jurisdictions are increasingly becoming or are perceived to be parts of a coherent global whole, it appears that the study of crime and criminal justice policies and practices can no longer be restricted within the boundaries of individual nation-states or even particular transnational regions. But in which specific fields, to what extent, and in what ways does globalisation influence crime and criminal justice in disparate jurisdictions? Which are the factors that facilitate or prevent such influence at a domestic and/or regional level? And how does or should scholarly inquiry explore these themes? These are all key questions which are addressed by the contributors to the volume. In addition to contributions focusing on theoretical and comparative dimensions of globalisation in criminal law and justice, the volume includes sections focusing on the role of evidence in the development of criminal justice policy, the development of European criminal law and its relationship with national and transnational legal orders, and the influence of globalisation on the interplay between criminal and administrative law.

This book contains original essays by a distinguished group of jurists from six different European countries confronting the increasing range of legal and philosophical issues arising from the relationship between privacy and the criminal law. The collection is particularly timely in light of the incorporation into English law of the European Convention on Human Rights. It compares legal cultures and underlying assumptions with regard to the private sphere,personal autonomy and the supposed justifications for State interference through criminalization and the implementation of substantive criminal law. The book moves from treatment of general ideas like the relationship between sovereignty, the nation-state and substantive criminal law in the new European context, (with its concomitant aspiration towards the establishment of transnational morality) to more detailed consideration of specific areas of substantive law and procedure, viewed from a range of perspectives. Areas considered include euthanasia, surrogacy, female genital mutilation and sado-masochism.

The Bribery Act 2010 is the most significant reform of UK bribery law in a century. This critical analysis offers an explanation of the Act, makes comparisons with similar legislation in other jurisdictions and provides a critical commentary, from both a UK and a US perspective, on the collapse of the distinction between public and private sector bribery. Drawing on their academic and practical experience, the contributors also analyse the prospects for enforcement and the difficulties facing lawyers seeking asset recovery following the laundering of the proceeds of bribery. International perspectives are provided via comparisons with the law in Spain, Hong Kong, the USA and Italy, together with broader analysis of the application of the law in relation to EU anti-corruption initiatives, international development and the arms trade.

The book consists of the keynote papers delivered at the 2012 WG Hart Workshop on Globalisation, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice organised by the Queen Mary Criminal Justice Centre. The volume addresses, from a cross-disciplinary perspective, the multifarious relationship between globalisation on the one hand, and criminal law and justice on the other hand. At a time when economic, political and cultural systems across different jurisdictions are increasingly becoming or are perceived to be parts of a coherent global whole, it appears that the study of crime and criminal justice policies and practices can no longer be restricted within the boundaries of individual nation-states or even particular transnational regions. But in which specific fields, to what extent, and in what ways does globalisation influence crime and criminal justice in disparate jurisdictions? Which are the factors that facilitate or prevent such influence at a domestic and/or regional level? And how does or should scholarly inquiry explore these themes? These are all key questions which are addressed by the contributors to the volume. In addition to contributions focusing on theoretical and comparative dimensions of globalisation in criminal law and justice, the volume includes sections focusing on the role of evidence in the development of criminal justice policy, the development of European criminal law and its relationship with national and transnational legal orders, and the influence of globalisation on the interplay between criminal and administrative law.

The fallout from the financial crisis of 2007-8, HSBC Suisse in 2015, and the Panama Papers in 2016 has generated calls for far more vigorous and punitive responses to tax evasion and greater international co-operation against mechanisms for giving anonymity to the ownership of property. One mechanism to ensure compliance is the use of the criminal justice system. The announcement in 2013 by the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, of a policy of increasing rates of prosecution for tax evasion raised squarely the issue of whether increased involvement of criminal law and criminal justice in tax evasion would be justifiable or not. The relationship between tax evasion and the proceeds of crime is taking on increasing importance: treating the 'proceeds of criminal tax evasion' as falling within the 'proceeds of crime' regime inevitably expands the scope of both. In this book, Peter Alldridge considers the development of the offences and the relationship between tax evasion offences and other criminal offences; the relevant rules of evidence; prosecution structures, decision-making processes, and alternatives to prosecution. Specific topics include offshore evasion and the relationship of tax evasion with other crimes and aspects of the criminal justice system. A topical and lively discussion of a heated debate.