Part I The International Law of Tainted Money, 5 International Legal Sources IV—the European Union and the Council of Europe

Subject(s):

Anti-terrorist financing — Criminal proceedings — Money laundering — International financial system — Monetary system

This chapter examines the European Union (EU) from the perspective of public international law. Financial crime, this chapter argues, is an international phenomenon that requires international solutions. This recognition has resulted in states cooperating on a number of different levels in order to streamline their responses to international financial crime. This chapter deals with the EU in two guises: as an independent source of international obligation for its member states, imposing discreet international obligations on them, which may even function so as to turn non-binding recommendations of international bodies into hard law, and as a peculiar entity interposing itself between international obligations from other sources (such as international treaties or UN Security Council binding resolutions) and domestic implementation of these obligations. The fact that some EU law has a more remote international source (such as a UN Security Council Resolution) may affect the degree and nature of the judicial scrutiny to which this body of law may be subject. The chapter looks first at sanctions and next at money laundering, both from the perspective of the EU.