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To identify the reason of Japan not complying with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendation 35 and suggesting a strategic solution to overcoming the barrier.

Through contextual, historical, and legal analysis of the anti-money laundering (AML) measures in Japan.

This paper implies that less flexible mindsets in stone of major players in the field of AML measures in Japan are the fundamental barrier for Japan not complying with the FATF Recommendation 35, while this paper suggests better realistic ways to address the barrier.

The novel point of this paper is that this paper illustriously uncovers the mindsets of the major players pertaining to the Japanese AML measures in a very illustrative way, points out the underlying true barrier, and describes a useful strategy desperately needed to address the barrier.

Trafficking¹ in human beings is gross.² It constitutes one of the most egregious violations of human rights.³ The vile nature of human trafficking is also hinged on the fact that it commodifies human beings. Hence its categorisation is modern slavery.⁴ So much of trafficking activities follow the pathways5 of other transnational forms of organised crimes and irregular cross-border movement of people.6 In response to this egregious crime, several international, regional and country laws and instruments have been used or proposed for combatting human trafficking.7 These instruments forbid trafficking in human persons and provide several preventive measures, prosecution of perpetrators and protection of victims of human trafficking.8 The number of state parties to the United Nations Protocol to prevent suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Protocol), demonstrates the global commitment to combatting human trafficking. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on legal systems, and the capacity of both state and private institutions to combat human trafficking, has added a knotty twist to the global problem of human trafficking. This essay looks at the trends of human trafficking in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlights international law and policy approaches that state parties and civil society organisations should adopt to counteract the changes and sustain the fight against human trafficking. Thus, the essay contributes to updating the legal and policy approaches to combat human trafficking in this era.

This paper aims to focus on the concept of money laundering and explores the evolution and expansion of criminalization of predicate offences to the money laundering within the international anti-money laundering (AML) regime over the time. It proposes how to limit the size and scope of predicate offences in designing a balanced legal definition.

This paper opted a content analysis focussed on the criminalization aspect of offences to money laundering in the international AML regime under the United Nations Conventions (Vienna, Palermo and Corruption Convention) and Financial Action Task Force Standards.

This paper provides how the criminalization of money laundering has evolved and its definition expanded over the time. The international definition is widely drafted with wide range of predicate offences from proceeds of drug money to corruption, including terrorist financing and terrorist acts; however, the two phenomena – money laundering and terrorist financing are quiet distinct apart. This continual expansion of predicate offences quite leads legality issues such as over-criminalization and conflict with principles of criminal law. This paper suggests an approach to limit the size and scope of predicate offences to money laundering.

This paper includes implications for the development of a balanced approach in defining predicate offences through a qualitative limitation approach consistent with the minimalist theory of penalization of criminal law.

This paper attains an identified issue how the legal definition of the money laundering offence can be improved while considering rule of law and principles of criminal law concerns.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the international standards for establishing national jurisdiction over the transnational crimes of money laundering and bribery and identify challenges to the adoption of those standards by different states in practice.

This paper, first, defines transnational money laundering and transnational bribery; then, it examines the legal bases and principles on which a state can claim criminal jurisdiction over these offences. This paper also discusses the application of jurisdictional conditions in a transnational context and how to deal with the problems arising from national claim of jurisdiction over these offences, for example, jurisdictional concurrence.

This paper argues that when the jurisdictional concurrence occurs, the involved states should consult one another by taking into account a number of relevant factors and take the “centre of gravity” approach to deciding which state or forum should prosecute eventually. States less able to establish jurisdiction over the offences are often those which have a weak legal basis and/or insufficient resources.

To the authors’ knowledge, this article would be the good guidance on how a state could claim jurisdiction over the offences of transnational money laundering and transnational bribery.

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.

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.

Begins with the Canadian Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act 1991, which was amended after 2001 into the Proceedings of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorism Financing Act. Looks at developments against money laundering in other countries such as the UK and USA; some prominent international measures and conventions include the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the 1990 Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds of Crime, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, and the Palermo Convention of the United Nations. Mentions also relevant United Nations conventions against terrorism and corruption. Moves on to international standards, mentioning the work of the Basel Committee, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Examines in detail the work of the Financial Action Task Force, which has become the recognised international forum on money laundering matters, and its 40 recommendations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of soft law as a technique for repressive and preventive anti-money laundering control (hereinafter AMLC).

This article focuses heavily on understanding the nature of international anti-money laundering (AML) law-making process. The approach towards this question is interdisciplinary and looks at the treaty and non-treaty AML obligations through a prism of two theoretical lenses (legal positivism and liberal/legal process theory) to explain the role of soft law in the area.

Current international effort to combat money laundering (ML) is fragmented (as evident in the enormous variety of law-making processes), despite the role of soft law. Part of the problem is the divergent nature of domestic criminal legislation, which is reflected in the choice of predicate crime and a lack of procedural rule to identify and enforce the law at the state level. To address the limit of current efforts, the paper will propose a uniform codification of AML law directed by a more representative body or commission of experts offering means of restating, clarifying and revising the law authoritatively and systematically.

The research is focused mainly on the theoretical issues relating to the subject of ML and less on any empirical case study.

The paper will focus on the role of soft law as a technique for repressive and preventive AMLC. Based on current analyses of the role of soft law as an alternative to hard law or as a complement to hard law (leading to greater cooperation), it attempts to outline the possible advantages and disadvantages that soft law could have in the context of AMLC. For example, the use of soft law promotes harmonisation of international AML standards through the Financial Action Task Force, while the role of the FATF remains unclear in international law. This is important for the purpose of responsibility, as the law on state responsibility clearly states when a State is responsible, in the event of a breach, and the consequence in international law.

The implication of the paper is that it contributes to the on-going debate about the increasingly role of soft law-making in international law.

The research perspective to the study of ML is theoretical and focuses on the nature of the law.

This paper aims to track Qatar’s progress in preventing abuse of charitable status or of its financial regulations to prevent terror finance.

Qatar’s progress towards meeting the demands of the Central Themes will thus be summarised and explored. This paper tracks its history in response to evolving Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, and considers how Qatar can take measures to enhance their reputation.

Qatar’s efforts were found to be sustained but these still fall short of emerging standards. This paper advocates for higher standards.

This original paper and novel approach is useful to policymakers and researchers of AML/CTF law. It is particularly timely in advance of the 2017 mutual evaluation of Qatar. It advances the findings of on another article written by the author.

This study aims to identify the sources of laundered money in Iran and the destinations to which it is transferred, independently verified by auditors. Based on such data, the study aims to develop a simple model of endogenous and exogenous factors facilitating money laundering in developing countries, which can inform domestic and international legislative and regulatory responses.

Questionnaires were sent to Iranian certified public accountants who worked for auditing firms in 2019 and who have encountered suspected money laundering during their work with clients.

The government and public officials are the primary sources of money laundering activity in Iran. The main destinations of laundered funds are investments abroad, gold, foreign currencies, real estate and purchases of luxury goods. Domestic legislation, while bearing similarities with that found in other jurisdictions such as the UK and the USA, is flawed in several ways, including an inability to determine beneficial ownership of funds and weak enforcement.

Because of international sanctions and the prevailing political situation, it is difficult to obtain data for money laundering and other financial crimes in Iran. The data obtained is of importance to international bodies in understanding the nature of money laundering in Iran, and how to negotiate in the future to address mutual concerns. Given the country’s perceived high association with money laundering, the data obtained is of value in identifying the specific characteristics of the problem.