In the past few years, criminal justice systems have faced important global challenges in the field of economic and financial crime. The 2008 financial crisis revealed how strongly financial markets and economies are interconnected and illustrated that misconduct in the economic and financial sectors is often of a systemic nature, with wide-spread consequences for a large number of victims. The prevention, control and punishment of such crimes is thus confronted with a strong globalisation. Moreover, continuous technological evolutions and socio-economic developments make the distinction between socially desirable and undesirable behaviour more problematic. Besides, economic and financial misconduct is notoriously difficult to detect and investigate. In light of these challenges, legislators and law enforcers have been searching for adequate responses to combat economic and financial crime by adapting existing policies, norms and practices and by creating new enforcement mechanisms. The purpose of this volume is to analyse those challenges in the field of economic and financial crime from different perspectives, and to examine which particular solutions criminal justice systems across Europe give to those challenges. The volume has four parts. The first part focuses on a number of key questions with respect to substantive criminal law, whereas the second part will address issues affecting the administration of justice and criminal procedure. Part three then explores particular challenges concerning multi-agency cooperation and multi-disciplinary investigations. Finally, part four will concentrate on issues regarding shared or integrated enforcement models.

This book deals with the widespread economic and financial crime issues of corruption, the shadow economy and money laundering. It investigates both the theoretical and practical aspects of these crimes, identifying their effects on economic, social and political life. This book presents these causes and effects with a state of the art review and with recent empirical research. It compares the international and transnational aspects of these economic and financial crimes through discussion and critical analysis. This volume will be of interest to researchers and policy makers working to study and prevent economic and financial crime, white collar crime, and organized crime.

In the aftermath of the last financial crisis, on both sides of the Atlantic banking supervisors were given new supervisory and enforcement powers, which are often of a substantially punitive-criminal nature. In Europe in particular, the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism within the European Central Bank substantially increased centralised investigatory and sanctioning powers. This major innovation, together with the development of forms of real-time monitoring of banking (often digital) records, challenges traditional banking criminal investigations in their national-based and analogue dimension.The book offers a comprehensive account and perspective analysis of the interactions between the criminal and administrative nature of such new powers, highlighting their “punitive” overall nature and their impact on fundamental rights. Covering both the US and the EU regulatory frameworks, it presents unprecedented, trans-systemic research between criminal law and procedure, and between regulatory and administrative law, at the international, European and national level.The book also includes a rich and detailed selection of case law from the US and the European supreme courts, with a specific focus on CJEU and ECtHR decisions.

This book looks at the interplay between criminal and other branches of public law pursuing similar objectives (referred to as 'quasi-criminal law'). The need for clarifying the concepts and the interlink between criminal and quasi-criminal enforcement is a topic attracting a lot of discussion and debate both in academia and practice across Europe (and beyond). This volume adds to this debate by bringing to light the substantive and procedural problems stemming from the current parallel or dual use of the different enforcement systems. The collection draws on expertise from academia, practice and policy; its high-quality analysis will appeal to scholars, practitioners and policymakers alike.

White collar crime has expanded significantly over the course of the past two decades. Yet, not only as the amount of national and international legislation in the field grown, but it has also endured changes driving it away from the classic criminal law. These trends have been reflected in changes to national legislation, not infrequently prompted by supranational law, for example, in the financial or the environmental sector. New punishing regimes have emerged, such as UN blacklisting, smart sanctions, civil asset forfeiture, financial supervisory powers, compliance law, and anti-money laundering laws. Furthermore, the role of administrative sanctioning law has been growing as well as the role of private actors in the enforcement of punitive sanctions. The aim of this volume is to examine how various national criminal justice systems across Europe deal with the aforementioned challenges. In the first part, it takes a closer look at the following national systems: France, Germany, Poland and Sweden. Furthermore, it compares the European approach with the American one as a source of inspiration for unresolved difficulties and future developments. Further still, the authors explore those challenging issues regarding the field of economic and financial crime, including the Senior Managers Regime, corporate criminal liability, and whistle-blowers' protection. Timely and pertinent, this is an important new work in a fast-moving field.

The definition of organised crime has long been the object of lively debate, at national and international level. Sociological and legal analysis has not yet led to one definitive answer to the question of what exactly 'organised crime' means. Nonetheless, many instruments adopted both at international and national levels set forth special legal regimes designed to target criminal groups featuring a stable organisation, which are perceived as particularly dangerous to society. Therefore, identifying the notion of organised crime is crucial to establishing the scope of any legal instrument specifically designed for combating it. The aim of this book is to reassess the scope, the effectiveness and the overall coherence of existing definitions of organised crime, and to identify any need for a reconsideration of these definitions, specifically with reference to the EU legal order. It will be of interest to academics, practitioners and legislators working in the sphere of EU criminal law and of organised crime more generally.

Presenting an original series of provocative essays, this book offers a European framing of white-collar crime. Experts from different countries foreground what is unique, innovative, or different about white-collar and corporate crimes that are so strongly connected to Europe.

Economic and financial crimes are growing in numbers, complexity and reach, making them increasingly difficult to investigate and successfully prosecute. This report details efforts in Latvia to strengthen its criminal justice system against financial and economic crimes.

Continuing the AIDP’s tradition in examining how to improve the protection of the environment through criminal law, this volume addresses various challenges and scientific concerns in relation to environmental crime. It touches upon a range of topics, from biodiversity to corporate criminal liability to jurisdictional or prosecutorial problems, and explores multiple national and regional enforcement systems, drawing from best practices. It brings together key proceedings of the Second AIDP World Conference on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law (Bucharest, May 18-20, 2016) organised by the International Association of Penal Law (AIDP) in collaboration with the Romanian Association of Penal Sciences, the Legal Research Institute of the Romanian Academy of Sciences and the Ecological University of Bucharest.

Every managerial decision is risky, at least to some extent. Conducting business is impossible without venturing into new territories and even the most ordinary daily choices could turn out to be failures. Excessive risk, however, can be very detrimental as was starkly illustrated by the most recent financial crisis. By criminalising managers' excessive risk-taking criminal law enters a sphere which is at the core of the activity it affects. At the same time it provides for criminal punishment for courses of conduct that, without doubt, can be extremely harmful. The objective of this book is to examine existing criminalisation of excessive risk-taking as well as to analyse whether such criminalisation is desirable and if yes, under which conditions.