ABSTRACT
This study examines the nature and dynamics of illegal markets and suggests ways in which these can be attacked. It defines an illegal market as a place or principle within which there is an exchange of goods and services, whose production, selling and consumption are forbidden or strictly regulated by the majority of states and/or by international law. The analysis also argues that multilateral treaties on the protection of human rights, international conventions on slavery, narcotics and psychotropic substances, the outlawing of violence in inter-state disputes, more restrictive domestic and international regulations on the use and trade of arms, are some of the basic examples of legal provisions contributing to the creation of today's illegal markets. Differences between legal and illegal markets are highlighted and the role of criminal organizations in illegal markets is explored. The analysis also highlights ways in which criminal markets and criminal organizations can be attacked and suggests that governments have already succeeded in bursting the myth of the invincibility of criminal organizations. The Convention against Transnational Crime will facilitate even further inroads against illegal markets.
