In 2012 this course will be Special Topics in International Law 2: Transnational Criminal Law

This course examines the international legal framework that States have created to regulate and respond to transnational crime, with a particular focus on the application of this framework to the migration context (migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons). 

At the multi-lateral level, key instruments include the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three Protocols on trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling and small arms.  At the regional and bilateral level, there are a variety of instruments that seek to respond to particular crime types and to regulate the various tools of international cooperation (mutual assistance, extradition, monitoring of financial transactions, and informal (police to police and other) cooperation).  These instruments exist within the much broader framework of international law constituted by, amongst other things, international human rights law, refugee law and the law of the sea.      

A participant who has successfully completed this course will be able to:

• identify the various key components of the legal framework that regulates transnational criminal law;
• identify some of the key policy and political debates that have shaped the development of this legal framework;
• engage in debate about some of the key policy and political issues that arise in discussions around the regulation of transnational criminal law;
• describe the major elements of the substantive legal obligations created by this legal framework;
• interpret and apply some of the key substantive obligations created by this legal framework to practical situations, in light of the broader web of international legal obligations; and
• assess the compliance of domestic laws and policies with some of the key substantive obligations, and identify and articulate possible remedies.

10% participation, 40% take-home exam, 50% research essay.

26 Contact Hours (Intensive Delivery)

LAWS8182 Principles of International Law & LLB or prior completion of a (domestic) Criminal Law course or evidence of practical knowledge of Criminal Law subject to approval from the course convenor.

International Human Rights Law

A Gallagher, The International Law of Human Trafficking, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

F David, Labour Trafficking, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2010. http://www.aic.gov.au/en/publications/current%20series/rpp/100-120/rpp108.aspx

Model Law against the Smuggling of Migrants; http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/Model_Law_Smuggling_of_Migrants_10-52715_Ebook.pdf

Internet access including access to WATTLE for supplementary materials.

The course will be taught by Fiona David.

Fiona is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International and Public Law at the ANU College of Law.

Fiona has worked on transnational crime issues, particularly migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons, in Australia, South East Asia and Africa with a range of agencies including the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, the International Organization for Migration, the Australian Institute of Criminology and AusAID.  

Fiona is the author of numerous publications on people trafficking and she was the Principal Drafter of the UNODC Model Law on the Smuggling of Migrants.  Fiona is co-authoring a book on the International Law of Migrant Smuggling with Dr Anne Gallagher.