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71. The Politics of the "Unfinished Business": Bosnian Police Reform

Author:
Dejan Guzina and Branka Marijan
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The recent protests in Bosnia-Herzegovina (henceforth, Bosnia) have once more shown the extent of the remaining challenges in the country. However, while many commentators have examined the political, economic and social roots of the protests, less attention has been paid to the role of the police in these events. Police confusion, their inability to respond to the street protests in a timely and professional manner, and allegations of the use of excessive force against protestors represent clear evidence that the stalled police reform in the country needs to be re-examined. After almost two decades of international assistance, first by the United Nations (UN) and later the European Union (EU), police reform in Bosnia remains incomplete. Since the 2012 closing of the EU police mission (EUPM) in Bosnia, the issue of police reform has been put on hold. Bosnia's multiple police services remain fragmented and lack transparency. More importantly, the lack of harmonization, coordination and civic oversight leads to political interference in policing.
Topic:
Civil Society, Human Rights, Law Enforcement, and Reform
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and United Nations

72. Not Just in Transit: Drugs, the State and Society in West Africa

Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
This report examines the increase in drug trafficking and consumption in West Africa and their impact on the state and on society. It concludes with recommendations on how the region can respond humanely, effectively and preemptively to these problems.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, War on Drugs, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Africa

73. The UN Security Council and Organized Criminal Activity: Experiments in International Law Enforcement

Author:
James Cockayne
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
On 30 November 1943, Franklin Roosevelt was in Teheran, celebrating Winston Churchill's sixty-ninth birthday with Josef Stalin. FDR gave Churchill a Persian vase, and as discussion turned to the post-war order he passed an aide a pencil sketch of what was to become the United Nations.
Topic:
Crime, International Cooperation, International Law, Narcotics Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Law Enforcement, and Piracy

74. Awaiting Justice: Prospects for Prosecuting War Crimes in Syria

Author:
Maria Radziejowska
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
In light of the current situation in Syria, and calls to hold to account those responsible for the atrocities allegedly committed during the conflict, a group of members of the American Congress suggested that the Security Council should create an ad hoc tribunal for Syria. A Blue Ribbon Panel of international criminal law experts presented a draft Statute for a Syrian Extraordinary Tribunal to Prosecute Atrocity Crimes, while some of the Security Council members suggested referring the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Issues pertaining to establishing justice and restoring the rule of law in Syria will certainly be on the agenda for future peace talks. The question of working out a transitional justice strategy for the country is inevitable. Whether such a strategy should include a judicial accountability mechanism will certainly be considered.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, Law Enforcement, and Law
Political Geography:
Syria

75. Beware the discretionary choices of arbitrators

Author:
Gus Van Harten
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Investment treaty arbitration has unfolded rapidly in recent years. Some observations arising from analyses of arbitrator awards are high lighted below. They support broad conclusions that: arbitrators reviewed a wide range of legislative, executive and judicial decisions but typically did not exercise judicial restraint in various ways associated with domestic and international courts; arbitrators typically adopted expansive approaches to their authority and to investor entitlements to compensation, especially where the claimant had the nationality of a major Western capital-exporting state; and decision-making power was highly concentrated amongarbitrators, suggesting a need for closer scrutiny of how the most active individual arbitrators have expanded the meaning of investment treaties and corresponding principles of state liability.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Treaties and Agreements, Foreign Direct Investment, Law Enforcement, and Law

76. Bytes beyond Borders: Strengthening Transboundary Information Sharing on Wildlife Crime through the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS) Initiative

Publication Date:
02-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade is a global crisis that not only threatens the conservation of protected species but also has deep implications for peace and security in nations across the world. As wildlife trafficking becomes more organized and illegal trade of wildlife continues to flourish on the ground and in cyberspace, there is an urgent need for a concerted international effort to gather and share wildlife crime information among law enforcement and policymakers, empowering them to stem the tide of wildlife trafficking. There are several good examples out of such efforts, primarily by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and INTERPOL, to combat wildlife poaching and transboundary illegal wildlife trade. At a policy level, the formation of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) can be considered as one of the major achievements in recent times, where CITES, INTERPOL, World Bank, UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and World Customs Organization have come together as one unit to address the issue. The good work done by civil society, including WWF, TRAFFIC, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and member organizations of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Species Survival Network (SSN) including grass root NGOs, is noteworthy as well. Yet, combating wildlife crime remains a big challenge. The collective efforts of the conservation community and governments are still unable to check the behaviour of poaching syndicates and organized criminals. We remain far behind in finding an adequate response to the crisis.
Topic:
Crime, Globalization, International Law, International Organization, Natural Resources, and Law Enforcement

77. Migration brokerage, illegality, and the state in Anglophone Cameroon

Author:
Maybritt Jill Alpes
Publication Date:
08-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Migration brokers are important participants in the increasingly commercialized policing of borders. Focusing on connections between migration brokers and state authorities, a new DIIS Working Paper by Maybritt Jill Alpes asks how migration brokers relate to the realm of the law, as well as how the law relates to migration brokerage. By examining illegality only when it becomes visible to aspiring migrants and brokers in the context of departure, the paper illuminates how state regulation is intimately intertwined with the emergence of migration brokerage. The argument of the paper provides a counter-point to studies of migration and illegality that often adopt an implicitly statist perspective by categorising brokers as either legal or illegal, as well as by framing brokers as agents that work 'against' the state. The paper draws on case material from Anglophone Cameroon, in the work of two NGOs that engage in so-called 'travel consultations'. It contributes to on-going discussions within the 'Migration Industry and Markets for Migration Control Network'.
Topic:
Crime, Migration, Non-Governmental Organization, Immigration, Law Enforcement, and Law
Political Geography:
Cameroon

78. Antitrust Enforcement in the Obama Administration's First Term: A Regulatory Approach

Author:
William F. Shughart II and Diana W. Thomas
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
During his presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama criticized sharply the lax anti-trust law enforcement record of the George W. Bush administration. Subsequently, his first assistant attorney general for antitrust even went so far as to suggest that the Great Recession was, at least in part, caused by federal antitrust policy failures during the previous eight years. This paper sets out to investigate how and in what ways antitrust enforcement has changed since President Obama took office in 2009. We review four recent antitrust cases and the behavioral remedies that were imposed on the defendants in those matters in detail. We find that the Obama administration has been significantly more active in enforcing the antitrust laws with respect to proposed mergers than his two predecessors in the White House had been. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission, together with the Department of Justice, withdrew a thoughtful report on the enforcement of Section 2 of the Sherman Act and issued new merger guidelines and a new merger policy remedy guide, all of which have moved antitrust law enforcement away from traditional structural remedies in favor of very intrusive behavioral remedies in an unprecedented fashion. That policy shift has further transformed antitrust law enforcers into regulatory agencies, a mission for which they are not well-suited, resulting in the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission being more vulnerable to rent seeking.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Governance, and Law Enforcement

79. Africa's Information Revolution: Implications for Crime, Policing, and Citizen Security

Author:
Steven Livingston
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Violent crime represents the most immediate threat to the personal security of most Africans. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 36 percent of all homicides globally occur in Africa. With 17 deaths per 100,000, the homicide rate in Africa is double the global average. Rates of robberies and rape in Africa also exceed global norms. The problem is worse in urban areas, with many of Africa's urban-dwellers “often” worrying about crime.
Topic:
Political Violence, Crime, Fragile/Failed State, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Africa and United Nations

80. Fighting piracy in the Gulf of Guinea - offshore and onshore

Author:
Cristina Barrios
Publication Date:
05-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
Following a spectacular decline in the Gulf of Aden, incidents of armed robbery at sea and piracy (which legally refer to attacks beyond territorial waters) are now on the rise in the Gulf of Guinea. In 2012, the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre recorded 58 attacks, including 10 hijackings. Nigeria is the most affected country, with 27 attacks in 2012 (almost three times more than in 2011), and 11 already reported for the first quarter of 2013. Most of the attacks target vessels connected to the oil industry, but they also disrupt trade and transport in the region as a whole, thereby posing a security threat to the international community as well as African states.
Topic:
Crime, Maritime Commerce, Law Enforcement, and Piracy
Political Geography:
Africa, Nigeria, and Guinea