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The purpose of this study is to analyse the challenges in devising a suitable formulation to determine whether a person had reasonable grounds to believe that property dealt with represented the proceeds of an indictable crime in the context of money laundering offences. The paper also examines the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal’s recent formulation in HKSAR v. Yeung Ka Sing, Carson (decided July 2016) and evaluates international standards.

The methodology adopted is partly a technical analysis of the various interpretations of “having reasonable grounds to believe” alongside a comparative approach drawing on international standards of the mens rea threshold and the position in the UK.

The findings are that the Court of Final Appeal’s formulation of “having reasonable grounds to believe” is the best possible outcome given the confines of the statutory provisions. The study confirms that the threshold set by the Court of Final appeal surpasses international standards; however, it argues that current international standards are in need of review.

This paper offers insight into the latest mens rea threshold of “having reasonable grounds to believe” in the context of Hong Kong’s anti-money laundering laws and compares international standards of the mens rea threshold. The discussion is of value to a wide audience both in Hong Kong and globally. It aims to provide guidelines to legal practitioners, law enforcement personnel, persons in the private and public sectors, academics and members of the public. This paper also seeks to provoke discussion as to whether international standards on the mens rea threshold should be reviewed with a view to strengthening international cooperation on the prevention of money laundering.

This paper aims to consider the problems related to criminal legal characteristics of the crime objective and to analyze specific features of the crime objective as the subjective aspect of crime.

Research methodology used in studying the criminal legal characteristics of the crime objective was based on the dialectical method of scientific cognition of the social and legal phenomena, its laws and categories. The author used general scientific research methods, systematic, historical, logical and functional, and observation, analysis, comparison and the empirical sociological method.

Definition of the crime objective as one of the subjective aspects related to the socially dangerous act will be helpful to detect the real causes of crime and to apply the right type and term of punishment. The crime objective should be understood as the important, well-defined features of conscious mental image of the future desired result, which determines the orientation and order of various actions aimed at crime commitment.

The paper substantiated the need to determine crime objective as one of the signs of the subjective aspect of crime. This will reveal the real causes of crime and apply the right type and term of punishment. It was established that the crime objective was a psychological phenomenon, and the question of its analysis and study had to be settled with regard to psychology and criminology, which will influence its cognition. The paper provided a definition of crime objective. Based on a scientific approach to the theoretical definition of the objective in the criminal law and the place in the subjective aspect of crime, the author presumed that crime objective had to be regarded as an optional feature of the subjective aspect of crime.

What leads a person to commit a crime, an act which not only violates moral norms and rules but also what are often considered to be among the most serious legal ones? A wide variety of social scientists, including psychologists, economists, and sociologists, have offered answers to this question. The current paper aims to take a different approach, offering an explanation drawn from the moral psychology of a pre‐eminent philosopher, Immanuel Kant.

While best known for his duty‐based ethics and the categorical imperative, Kant had a very rich conception of character, strength, and willpower that can inform the understanding of why persons choose to commit criminal acts. This short paper begins with a brief description of Kant's moral psychology, and then surveys a number of topics within the criminal law to which this can be applied, such as normative considerations in criminal penalties, Hart's distinction between internal and external points of view on the law, mens rea and mental illness, how people regard different criminal prohibitions, and how punishment does and should affect people's choice.

The paper emphasizes the effect of the normative status of criminal laws and penalties on the choice and action of morally imperfect persons, which contrasts with the overly simplistic models of criminal behavior of other social scientists, which are based on calculations of costs and benefits alone.

The paper introduces Kant's rich but little‐known moral psychology into the discussion of criminal psychology, bringing a different angle to topics such as motivation and responsibility that are primary areas of focus for psychologists, criminologists, and philosophers.

The first legislative step undertaken by the Italian Parliament to detect money laundering dates back to Decree 59, issued in March 1978 and brought into force by Law 191/1978. The Decree introduced s. 648 bis into the Italian Penal Code; it was entitled ‘Substitution of money or funds deriving from armed robbery, racketeering or kidnapping for reward’. The new offence was based on the structure of s. 648 ‘Handling stolen goods’; the crime was punishable with a sentence of between four and ten years' imprisonment. The introduction of s. 648 bis was required for two reasons: on the one hand, to address the concern arising from the numerous terrorist kidnappings and blackmail occurring in Italy at that time; on the other, to strengthen the criminal repression of the ‘specified unlawful activities’.

Money laundering, drug dealing, terrorism, hacking, fraud, child pornography and the distribution of objectionable material are crimes that are perpetrated using the Internet. Criminals utilise software tools and valuable knowledge from the Internet as well as embracing the Internet’s global communications system to participate in virtual communities of disguised people. The Internet provides the facilities for people with criminal intent to associate and exchange intelligence with reduced risk to their personal identification. Using the example of paedophile and hacker Internet practice, this paper proposes an association between criminal Internet activity and Internet anonymity. It discusses the propensity to use anonymity techniques when perpetrating cyber crime. Consequently, a new balance between privacy, freedom of speech and law enforcement must be determined.

There has, for some time, been a debate over whether the proceeds of evasion of foreign taxes fall within money‐laundering legislation contained in s. 93 Criminal Justice Act 1988 (as amended) (‘the Act’). Those that argue for this interpretation seem to be gaining the ascendancy. This may in part be because government ministers and officials have repeatedly stated the view that evasion of foreign tax is a criminal offence like any other. This depends on whether a court interprets ‘criminal conduct’, defined in s. 93A(7) as follows, to include foreign tax evasion:

The identification criteria, service provision, and prevalence rates of individuals with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) vary across state jurisdictions in the United States despite being governed by the same general rules. Therefore, it is unlikely that nations with different histories, economic circumstances, and attitudes toward social norms will demonstrate similarity regarding identification and treatment of individuals with EBD. The fields of anthropology, sociology, and psychology provide conceptual frames for understanding how EBD might be considered across cultures. The present chapter reviews a number of these conceptual considerations. Although there is considerable evidence for variability across cultures, there is also evidence for a shared basis that appears to be part of human characteristics, regardless of culture. The chapter concludes by considering special education services in general as a subset of the education systems provided to all citizens in several nations with diverse cultures and economic situation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine elder abuse (EA) tendency in the context of social integration and caregiver stress (CGS). Afterward, the attempt has been made to examine the role of mens rea or intention in the incidence of EA.

For examining the opinion on EA through the perspective of the elderly and caregiver, a questionnaire was developed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Afterward, a z-test was used for analyzing the results obtained from the elderly and caregivers.

The results showed that in the context of EA, the opinion of caregivers differs from the elderly. This finding was attributed to the theory of ignorance. Based on this, the legal action for every incidence of EA was discouraged by seeking endorsement from the attachment theory especially for the EA incidences arising due to factors such as social isolation or CGS.

This research addresses the presence and non-presence of mens rea or intention in the incidence of EA. Future studies may be conducted by taking a sample from two more developed and developing economies. Moreover, based on the findings the recommended framework can be empirically examined by future researchers.

Understanding the study through the perspective of the caregiver may facilitate the academicians and practitioners in keeping the fabric of relationships stronger among the elderly and caregiver.

Based on the results obtained from the elderly and caregiver, this study proposes a conceptual framework for examining the EA through the lens of mens rea/intention of the caregiver. It is recommended that initiating legal action for every incidence of EA must be discouraged. However, the incidences such as physical abuse (assault), financial abuse, sexual abuse and alike for which the law itself assumes the presence of intention must not be exempted.

The purpose of this paper is to critically appraise the legal definition of the offence of money laundering under Malawian law. The goal is to evaluate whether the definition meets international standards and best practices on legal definition of money laundering, particularly as contained in the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNCATOC).

The paper is a doctrinal analysis of the legal definition of the offence of money laundering under Malawian law. It examines the constituent elements of the offence based on the traditional conception of a criminal offence as constituting the prohibited conduct (or actus reus) and the mental element (or mens rea). The paper comparatively evaluates the offence vis-à-vis international standards and best practices, particularly as contained in the UNCATOC.

The paper concludes that the definition is compliant with international standards and best practices.

The paper is based on the statutory definition of the offence, but was unable to examine how the offence is interpreted and applied in concrete cases by Malawian courts. The reason is the lack of any case law through which courts have interpreted and applied the offence.

The paper provides the template for future interpretation and application of the offence by courts in the future.

Enhancing the clarity and certainty in the law on money laundering in Malawi.

The paper is an elucidation of a statutory provision that was recently adopted in Malawi and for which there is no authoritative clarification. The paper, therefore, makes an invaluable contribution to the fight against money laundering in Malawi by being a guide to law enforcers, lawyers, courts and policy/legislative makers.

This chapter examines the impact of changes in foreign exchange legislation on the levels of R&D undertaken by pharmaceutical firms in India. Foreign exchange legislation in India was codified as the FERA, passed in 1973, and the legislation was based on the mens rea principle, assuming criminal intent on the part of transgressor. The provisions of FERA were replaced with those of new legislation, called FEMA, in 1999. The impacts of the changes have been examined.

The examination has been based on panel data of Indian pharmaceutical firms over a period of fifteen years, from 1991–1992 to 2005–2006.

The results of the analysis have shown that, controlling for a variety of other factors, a transition from FERA to FEMA has been associated with a significant rise in pharmaceutical firms’ average levels of R&D undertaken.

The research establishes that institutional changes have significantly impacted innovation performance in India. The sector examined, pharmaceuticals, is important for the Indian economy as well as for general welfare, since its products help enhance the quality of lives. How innovation can be enhanced in this sector is an important policy consideration.

The research is the first to examine the impact of changing the laws relating to foreign exchange transactions in India on capability building, via undertaking research activities, in an important sector of Indian industry.