Crime prevention at international law

Abstract

The title of my thesis "Crime Prevention at International Law" gives the wrong impression that I will be dealing with all possible international crime. This is not the case. To venture into such a Herculean task I would certainly have required much more time and space, and certainly , one thesis on the subject would have not been enough. Consequently, I am limiting my studies on four specific areas: terrorism, drug offences, money laundering and counterfeiting of currency. The discussion of these four particular crimes includes the synthesis of various important conventions, focusing mainly on the very definition of crime, jurisdiction and extradition and their related problems, in both their application and interpretation. More than twenty international conventions are discussed in the thesis, some of which Malta ratified, as seen in Appendix 1. In this work several foreign and local case law is referred to, and in chapters three and four (Money Laundering, and Counterfeiting of currency), reference is also made to the Maltese Legislation, particularly the important amendments made this year to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap.101 of the Laws of Malta , and the new legislation on Money Laundering which very clearly reflects Malta's handsome contribution to crime prevention in the international arena. In my thesis, I shall attempt to discover the salient points where crime prevention at international law is handicapped not withstanding the recent international instruments available, without of course, disregarding the continuous efforts being made in the international fora. All these 'deficiencies' in the law are summarised in the conclusion of my work.