ABSTRACT
The increase of cross-border movements of persons, goods and capital in the second half of the twentieth century and the increasing international visibility of certain local criminal events has resulted in a response from the international community: transnational criminal law.1 This increase in transnational crime shows that the traditional approach of reserving criminal law to the sovereignty of States is no longer sufficient to effectively prevent and combat criminal events. Sovereignty has become, in many instances, an aid to transnational criminals. Perpetrators structure their activities around legal and institutional ambiguities generated by conflicting legal systems and traditions. The interconnection between criminal law and sovereignty has therefore rendered the control of transnational crime solely at the local level insufficient.
