Home
Search

New Perspectives on Jurisdiction and the Criminal Law

The 2021 WG Hart Legal Workshop (postponed from 2020) on ‘New Perspectives on Criminal Jurisdiction’ was held by Zoom on the 26th-28th April 2021. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, Queen Mary, University of London, and University College London.

Overview

Questions of jurisdiction are becoming increasingly important to the investigation, prosecution and punishment of crime. The growth of technology and the internet means not only that crime is becoming increasingly transnational, but also that in some cases it is becoming increasingly hard to say where a crime has taken place. This also causes issues for enforcement agencies as they grapple with jurisdictional rules – for example, around search or seizure of assets – that were in many instances designed for a different era. The challenge, then, for criminal lawyers is whether it is possible to continue to adapt traditional rules governing territorial and extraterritorial jurisdiction to these new circumstances, or whether the situation requires completely new kinds of approaches to criminal jurisdiction.

This is the first major conference dedicated to the theme of criminal jurisdiction for a number of years. The contributors come from across the globe and comprise a number of the leading global figures working in the area of jurisdiction as well as leading practitioners and academics specialising in the areas of criminal law and internet law.

Academic Directors

Professor Lindsay Farmer (University of Glasgow)
Professor Julia Hörnle (Queen Mary, University of London)
Dr Micheál Ó Floinn (University of Glasgow)
Professor David Ormerod QC (University College London)

Plenary Speakers

Professor Mireille Hildebrandt (Vrije Universiteit, Brussels)
Professor Cedric Ryngaert (University of Utrecht)
Professor Alejandro Chehtman (University Torcuato Di Tella)
Mattia Pinto (PhD researcher, London School of Economics)
Stuart Alford QC (Latham & Watkins LLP)
Jonathan Hall QC (6KBW and Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation)
Clare Montgomery QC (Matrix Chambers)
James Ramsden QC (Astraea Group)
Professor Julia Hörnle (Queen Mary, University of London)
Áine Clancy (PhD researcher, Queen Mary, University of London)
Professor Katalin Ligeti (University of Luxembourg)
Professor Uta Kohl (University of Southampton)
Professor Ian Walden (Queen Mary, University of London)

Programme

Plenary Speakers

  • Mireille Hildebrandt: Text-driven jurisdiction in cyberspace 
  • Cedric Ryngaert: Enforcement jurisdiction in a-territorial spaces: Addressing crime on the high seas and in cyberspace 
  • Mattia Pinto: Historical trends of human rights gone criminal across the globe 
  • Áine Clancy: UWOs against PEPs as a response to jurisdictional limitations: problems and potential

Panel 1: Jurisdiction in financial crime

  • Sarah Wilson: New perspectives on jurisdiction and the criminal law explored through the prism of financial crime: the case study of insider dealing and the Hong Kong SAR decision in Young Bik Fung and Ors 
  • Vincenzo Mongillo: The jurisdictional reach of corporate criminal liability in a globalized world: The essential balance between effectiveness and guarantees 

Panel 2: Jurisdiction and trafficking

  • Felicity Gerry, Eamonn Kelly, Sue Milne & Cate Read: Jurisdiction, Habeas Corpus and trafficked women and children in Syrian refugee camps 

Panel 3: The role of civil law in addressing transnational crime

  • Dimitrios Kafteranis: Jurisdiction and the whistle-blower: what the Directive fails to do?

Panel 4: The limits of jurisdictional ambits

  • Darryl K. Brown: The diminishing relevance of criminal jurisdiction
  • Marta Minetti: Uses, abuses and misuses of anti-smuggling laws in Italy: Extension of jurisdiction
  • Nicolás Zambrana-Tévar J: Jurisdiction and global religious actors: holding the holy see accountable 

Panel 5: Extraterritorial jurisdiction: law and practice

  • Matthew Garrod: An empirically informed analysis of the protective principle of extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction: The need for a shift in paradigm? 
  • Camilla Mostardini & T Trinchera: “Here, there and everywhere”: Is double criminality a requirement for extraterritorial jurisdiction?
  • Danielle Ireland-Piper: Extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction in east and south-east Asia

Panel 6: The impact and role of human rights in delineating jurisdictional conflict

  • Anna Blachnio-Parzych: Expanding the ambit of criminal law and its structure: Consequences of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union
  • Steven Malby: Deciding the criminal forum – can the ECHR contribute? 
  • Alena Douhan: Criminal jurisdiction and the EU human rights sanctions regime 

Panel 7: Universal jurisdiction

  • Elies van Sliedregt: Universal jurisdiction and the choice of law - each to their own jurisdiction?
  • Maria Ludwiczak Glassey: Universal jurisdiction: Between multiculturalism and predictability 

Panel 8: Cybercrime: country perspectives

  • Asaf Harduf: Israel versus Britain, cybercrime versus national borders: Should domestic criminal law always battle incoming offenses? 
  • Dominik Zając: Criminal jurisdiction in the information society 

Panel 9: ‘Territoriality’ in investigative powers

  • Oriola Sallavaci: Defining jurisdiction in cyberspace: The principle of territoriality in the cross-border access to electronic evidence

Panel 10: Proceeds of crime

  • Victoria Koutsoupia: Towards an efficient legal framework for EU cooperation on criminal confiscation matters 
  • Anna Sakellaraki: The new institution of the non-conviction-based confiscation under Art. 76a § 4 of the German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch- StGB) in comparison with Art. 437 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure (Strafprozessordnung- StPO)
  • Marta Giuca: Cryptocurrencies and criminal law. Preventing and punishing money laundering

Panel 11: Reining in the ‘foreign’ service provider

  • Dan Suter: Balancing the need for speed and human rights in cross-border requests for electronic evidence 

Panel 12: Jurisdictional conflict in extradition law

  • Paul Arnell & Gemma Davies: Jurisdiction and extradition – the UK’s forum bar