Transnational Criminal Courts

Sara Wharton and Robert J Currie examine the various failed or not fully realized attempts to establish an alternative to national criminal jurisdiction over transnational crimes, in the shape of various different models of transnational criminal court. They range from the mixed commissions against slavery in the 19th century to the criminal chamber of the African Court sketched out in the Malabo Protocol. A variety of reasons appear to drive these initiatives but they have one thing in common—an incapacity within the current system to deal with certain kinds of transnational crime at all or in a politically acceptable manner.