Research project S1/10/04 (Research action S1)
The research is developed under the direction of Maria Luisa Cesoni, in cooperation with the Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Strafrecht (Freiburg) et la Scuola Superiore di studi Universitari e di perfezionamento S. Anna (Pisa).
The research aims at studying the recent evolution of the belgian criminal law in the specific field of the fight against organized criminality, in order to unveil whether international or foreign influences contributed to direct its definition.
Several new techniques indeed recently appeared in belgian law - or a bill was introduced - with the explicit aim (though sometimes nonexclusive) to reinforce the effectiveness of the fight against organized crime in general, and the criminal organizations in particular.
This is the case for the use of anonymous witnesses, the introduction of the figure of "repented" or "crown witnesses", the legalization of the proactive investigation and the particular methods of research or, still, the inversion of the burden of proof as regards confiscation.
Several of these techniques already exist in other legislative systems and/or were the subject of provisions of international or Community law. One can thus suppose that the evolutions in belgian law were influenced by precedents set abroad and/or decisions adopted at an international level. Such an influence (German, American and European) has already been highlighted by an earlier research relating to the recent introduction of the notion of criminal organization, both in Belgium and in Switzerland (1.).
To seek to test the validity of the hypothesis of external influences and to unveil how such an influence operated, a comparative analysis is required on the relevant provisions - as well in belgian law, international law and Community legislation, as in certain foreign legal systems of reference. This comparative undertaking is focused on three countries that seem to have played a decisive role within the framework of the fight against the organized crime: the United States, Germany and Italy. The development processes of the Belgian, international and Community legal provisions will be also analysed on the basis of a documentary study supplemented by interviews with people having taken part in their processes of definition.
1.CESONI, M. L. dir., Organised crime: towards an operational definition, Research report for the Swiss National Science Foundation, December 2001.
Les dispositifs de lutte contre les organisations criminelles : une législation sous influence ?
Cesoni, Maria Luisa - D'Orazio, Samuel - Bokhorst, Roelof Jan ... et al Gent : Academia Press, 2005 (PB6172)
Maatregelen ter bestrijding van de misdaadorganisaties. Een beïnvloede wetgeving? : samenvatting
Brussel : Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid, 2005 (SP1541)
[To download]
Dispositifs de lutte contre les organisations criminelles. Une législation sous influence? : résumé
Bruxelles : Politique scientifique fédérale, 2005 (SP1542)
[To download]
Methods of fighting criminal organisations. A legislation under influence? : summary
Brussels : Belgian Science Policy, 2005 (SP1543)
[To download]
