Book Description

The present study explores the complex and still evolving international legal framework aiming at contrasting the global threats to security represented by terrorist financing, money laundering and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. It starts noting that the pivotal instrument of such legal framework is a piece of soft law, a set of recommendations, adopted by what may be defined a “soft international organization”, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). This is a technocratic international standard-setter devoid of some of the distinctive features of traditional international organizations, but capable of determining the evolution of international law in those matters. The study argues that the legal nature of FATF, of its recommendation and of the “soft sanctions” used in case on non-compliance are all factors which have fostered the adoption of FAFT standards all over the world, far beyond its members. In order to explain such dynamics, the article, after examining the main sources of hard law tackling terrorist financing and money laundering, assesses the use of soft law to provide technical regulation for particular security issues. It proceeds by investigating the main features of FATF recommendations and the legal nature of FATF. It concludes by showing that there is a deep and dynamic interaction between soft and hard law (including EU secondary legislation) in the field, supporting and strengthening one another. Soft and technocratic entities like FATF may well respond to the needs of contemporary international community for flexibility and celerity, but what is at stake is the exercise of public power and the control of such exercise.