Further reflections on the concept of transnational criminal law

Abstract

In an attempt to clarify the concept of transnational criminal law, this piece examines its basic elements, analysing questions about what its essential components are and whether purely national crimes and laws for criminal cooperation are part of transnational criminal law. It then turns to the difficult question of whether transnational criminal law can accurately be termed a legal system, examining whether – and if so, how – apparently unrelated national criminal laws dealing with transnational crime are in a systemic relation. The piece then shifts its attention to whether it is possible to expand the transnational legal space to include rules that are made autonomously from state or international authority. After discussing whether transnational criminal law is a pluralist legal order, it concludes by examining who benefits from transnational criminal law, focusing on whether – and if so, how – transnational criminal law can escape the taint of Western hegemony.