The Intersection Between European Criminal Law and International Criminal Law - A Study on How the Two Legal Fields Co-Operate to Combat Human Trafficking.

• In Event: New Knowledge and Perspectives in International and Transitional Justice (ECACTJ Working Group)

Abstract

Human trafficking is a widely spread crime worldwide affecting millions of victims at any given time, nearly a third of whom are children. This crime is closely linked to severe violations of fundamental human rights and atrocity crimes. Yet globally there are disproportionately few judgements on human trafficking. Consequently, there is a pressing need for further research into how supranational forms of criminal law interact and whether these legal systems require modifications or enhancements to more effectively combat serious offences such as human trafficking.

This project aims to study the interrelationship between European criminal law (ECL) and international criminal law (ICL). It does this by looking at human trafficking, a crime that often has transnational components and therefore can illustrate how these two legal fields operate in practice.
The aim gives cause for the following main research question: what does the interrelationship between ECL and ICL look like? It also poses the following sub questions:

•1a. How is human trafficking understood by the different accepted legal sources within the ECL and the ICL?
•1b. What is required for the act of human trafficking to constitute a crime against humanity or a war crime?
•2. How does the interaction between ECL and ICL work?
•3. Is there a need for the ECL and the ICL to be changed to better combat human trafficking within the European Union or globally - and if there is such a need, how should they be changed to better combat human trafficking?

Author

• Nathalie Ottosson, UiT The Arctic University of Norway