Criminal Selectivity in Light of International Public Law

• In Event: International and Transnational Crime and Justice

Abstract

In times of globalization, the definition, regulation, and sanction of the law go beyond national borders and are shaped by various international organizations which exercise ‘international public authority.’ However, attention has yet been developed in relation to global power interventions in national regulations on crime and punishment. My paper aims to correct this oversight by using the concept of criminal selectivity to analyze how the exercise of international public authority shapes the evolvement of local criminal justice systems. The notion of criminal selectivity was coined in my Ph.D. dissertation to conceptualize the unequal functioning of criminal justice systems and how it operates through the mechanisms of over-criminalization and under-criminalization. Under this framework, the paper analyses those mechanisms in relation to crimes involving a global dimension such as money-laundering, terrorism, corruption, drug-related crimes, and intellectual-property rights. The paper focuses on the country members of the Union of South American Nations (U.S.A.N), which is a region intensively affected by the pressure of international organizations. The research identifies the different international conventions, protocols, regulations, and country evaluations referring to the mentioned crimes, and whether those instruments have exercised international pressure over the local legal systems.

Author

• Valeria E Vegh Weis, New York University