Confronting the Shadow State: An International Law Perspective on State Organized Crime(Oxford Monographs in International Law)

This book examines the rules and mechanisms of international law relevant to the suppression of state organized crime, and provides a normative justification for developing international legal mechanisms specifically designed to address this phenomenon. State organized crime refers to the use by senior state officials of the resources of the state to facilitate or participate in organized crime, in pursuit of policy objectives or personal profit. This concept covers diverse forms of government misconduct, including strategic partnerships with drug traffickers, the plundering of a country's resources by kleptocrats, and high-level corruption schemes. The book identifies the distinctive criminological characteristics of state organized crime, and analyses the applicability, potential, and limits of the norms and mechanisms of international law relevant to the suppression of state organized crime. In particular, it discusses whether the involvement of state organs or agents in organized crime may amount to an internationally wrongful act giving rise to the international responsibility of the state, and highlights a number of practical and normative shortcomings of the legal framework established by relevant crime-suppression conventions. The book also sketches proposals to develop an international legal framework designed to hold perpetrators of state organized crime accountable. It presents a normative justification for criminalizing and suppressing state organized crime at the international level, proposes draft provisions for an international convention for the suppression of state organized crime, and discusses the potential role of the UN Security Council and of international criminal courts and tribunals, respectively, in holding perpetrators accountable. Providing the first comprehensive analysis, from the perspective of international law, of a phenomenon so far mainly studied by criminologists, this study would appeal to researchers, social activists, and policy makers alike.

Table of Contents:
Introduction State organized crime 1: The phenomenon of state organized crime The limits of applicable international law 2: State responsibility for state organized crime 3: International criminal law instruments for the suppression of organized crime and corruption 4: The limits of applicable crime-suppression conventions International legal mechanisms for the suppression of state organized crime 5: A normative justification for establishing state organized crime as an international crime 6: A convention for the suppression of state organized crime 7: The potential role of the UN Security Council in the suppression of state organized crime 8: The potential role of international criminal tribunals in the suppression of state organized crime Concluding remarks

About the Author :
Henri Decoeur is a lawyer specializing in international criminal litigation, in matters relating to human rights, organized crime, terrorism, and corruption. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, an LLM from McGill University, and a BA in comparative law from Universite' Paris Nanterre. He has worked for international criminal courts and tribunals, and practices law as a licensed member of the Paris Bar.

Review :
Decoeur's approach is methodical, thorough, and sufficiently cautious. His arguments are carefully developed and his conclusions, referred to as 'utopian' in the book's preface, are, in fact, compelling. Providing the first comprehensive analysis, from the perspective of international law, of a phenomenon so far mainly studied by criminologists, this study would appeal to researchers, social activists, and policy makers alike.