Rebooting International Criminal Justice Cooperation Against Illicit Trade and Financial Crime

Abstract

With the wavering commitment of many states to the rule of law and their diminishing support for multilateral institutions, rule-based international cooperation against illicit trade and financial crime has become more transactional and problematic. Incentives for engaging in long-term, multilateral, rule-based formal agreements are rapidly vanishing. Yet, international cooperation remains essential to any effective action against illicit trade and financial crime. A fresh approach to international criminal justice cooperation is required, but at present the leadership needed for such a transformation is missing. Despite ongoing work at the global level to develop new cooperation treaties – for example with respect to cybercrime or crime against the environment – states seem to have lost faith in the value of working together at that level. Some states are attempting to redefine the rules that will guide them, as well as how and with whom they will cooperate in the future. If illicit trade and transnational crime are thought to be out of control and democracies seen as incapable of countering those threats, what are the prospects for a different international cooperation architecture? Global cooperation against transnational crime and illicit trade can prevail over global dysfunction if states and their leaders are willing to change course. That new course of action, however, has yet to be traced.