International and European Financial Criminal Law

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Description
Financial crime is a fashionable topic. Indeed, there exist numerous books on particular aspects of financial criminal activity and a good amount of lawyers across the world are now making a living exclusively from cases involving some element of financial crime. The recent collapse of corporate giants in the USA and Europe, as well as the threat from terrorist financing following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have provided new impetus to an otherwise domestic, or at best transnational, criminal law. The flagship of financial criminal law had always been money laundering and it was the one deservedly hailed as an international offence. This is no longer the case. Corruption has too, following the conclusion of several global and regional treaties, become a matter of international concern, as has organised crime and its various manifestations. The most concrete action has undoubtedly been taken in the European Union, not only through the harmonisation of a significant number of financial offences through Framework Decisions, but also with the adoption of efficient mutual legal assistance agreements and the passing of the European Arrest Warrant, which includes many financial crimes, without the traditional hurdles associated with bilateral extradition treaties. While with regard to some offences it is not difficult to ascertain why particular action may constitute a criminal offence, in others this is not so. For example, it is now well known that money associated with terrorist operations is mostly collected from legitimate means and sources without, in most cases, knowledge by those offering it that it will be used to finance terror. Equally, the thin boundaries between the lawful act of tax avoidance and the unlawfulness of tax evasion, coupled with stricter financial policies introduced by states on the basis of their economies' performance, makes it difficult to determine every time and with certainty where legality meets criminality. Recent corporate scandals have also demonstrated that domestic law has been inadequate in dealing with the way in which corporations run their affairs and balance their books. On many occasions, it is true, states have turned a blind eye, having allowed self-regulation to be the cornerstone of a competitive and flourishing economy. Nonetheless, the social calamities that accompany the collapse of a giant corporation, such as mass unemployment and therefore potential collapse of the secondary economy in particular places, lack of trust in the financial system and therefore decrease in trade, loss of pension money and savings, to mention a few, have sparked debate not only as to the appropriateness of self-regulation but also as to the imposition of a criminal framework around the running of corporate activities.
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Contents
Chapter 1    The Legal nature of transnational Financial Crime
Chapter 2    Money Laundering: Phases and techniques/Typologies
Chapter 3    International Regulation of Money Laundering and Terrorist Finance
Chapter 4    Terrorist Financing in International Law
Chapter 5    Transnational Corporate and White Collar Crime
Chapter 6    Fraud in the Eu : Review of Olaf 's Regulatory Framework
Chapter 7    Sarbanes-Oxliey Financial Crimes : on Legal Risk, Potential Liablity and Empolyee  Protection
Chapter 8    The International System of Corruption Control
Chapter 9    Criminal Enforcement aganist International Cartels in the European Communities,
                       the UK and the USA
Chapter 10  Organised crime and the use of EU-wide Databases
Chapter 11   Cross-Broder Tax Fraud and Cross-Border Anti-Tax Fraud
Chapter 12   Mutual legal Assistance and Extradition Concerning International Financial Crime in
                       the European Union
Chapter 13   The European Union and Money Laundering: The
                        Preventive Responsibilities of the Private Sector
Index
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