Post 9/11 developments of the EU criminal law-related initiatives and their implications on some basic criminal law principles
In their contribution the authors Katja Šugman, researcher at the Slovenian Institute of Criminology and Matjaž Jager, Director of the same institute, point at the tendency to respond toughly to terrorism and compare it with another, alternative mode of conduct: self-knowledge of this ‘weakness of will’ and taking measures not to be lured to such a response. The authors cite the story from Homer’s Ulysses, who faced the temptations of Sirens by having himself bound to the mast of his ship because he knew he could not resist. According to the authors such a self-knowledge cannot be discerned with the European legislators. Though they do not mention the European directive on money laundering, much of their remarks may apply also to the topic of the first chapters of our volume.
In general they deplore the way penal legislation is drafted, whereby the principles of proportionality and ultimo ratio are neglected. What human rights, what privacy, what double criminality, what other safeguards against overzealous authorities? No, the authorities are for our common good: trust them! And the measures which are proposed are only intended for ‘serious’ cases, real exceptions. But as soon as one turns around they have been extended and have become the rule. This was the case with data retention, but also with the dense control system of money-laundering. “No”, said the Dutch Minister of Justice once, “this is only for serious and organised crime and big money”. Soon the majority of the cases involved illegal profits of less than € 6.000.
Journal/Publisher: Wolf Legal Publishers
Co-author/s: Matjaž JAGER in Petrus VAN DUYNE, Almir MALJEVIC, Maarten VAN DIJCK, Klaus VON LAMPE and Jackie HARVEY (Eds.), "Crime business and crime money in Europe: the dirty linen of illicit enterprise"
Publication type: Article
Number of pages/Page range: 247-267
Language/s (content): English
Date of publication: 01-06-07
Personal data
Full name Katja SUGMAN
Current occupation Contact Point
University/Institution University of Ljubljana
Address Poljanski Nasip 2
Postal code 1000
Country Slovenia
Telephone +386 1 4203 187