Abstract
On the ten-year anniversary of the adoption of the 1988 U.N. Drug Convention, this Article analyzes whether signatory- parties have complied with the duties and obligations imposed thereunder, and, in particular, whether the Convention has enhanced international cooperation in narcotics enforcement. Part I of this Article examines the legal obligations and duties imposed under the 1988 U.N. Drug Convention, with special emphasis on the provisions aimed at criminalizing money laundering and at forfeiture of illicit drug proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking. Additionally, Part I examines the requirement that parties afford one another the "widest measure of mutual legal assistance in [narcotics] investigations, prosecutions, and judicial proceedings," and whether signatories to the Convention are in compliance with this obligation. Part II analyzes whether foreign countries are in compliance with the obligations imposed by the 1988 U.N. Drug Convention to enact domestic anti-money laundering legislation and to assist one another in drug forfeiture proceedings. Part III scrutinizes U.S. compliance under the Convention, focusing on domestic legislation criminalizing international money laundering and authorizing forfeiture of foreign drug proceeds found in the United States, as well as forfeiture of property located abroad. Part III then examines whether these domestic criminal provisions have been aggressively implemented. Finally, Part IV examines whether enforcement of the 1988 U.N. Drug Convention should be pursued through the International Court of Justice and whether compliance should be encouraged through international asset sharing.
Recommended Citation
Jimmy Gurule,
The 1988 U.N. Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances --A Ten Year Perspective: Is International Cooperation Merely Illusory?,
22 Fordham Int'l L.J. 74
(1998).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj/vol22/iss1/2