How Law Enforcement Cooperation Abroad is Pivotal to Sustainable Development Abroad
David A. Sadoff, 35 B.U. Int’l L.J. 337 (2017)
At first glance, the nexus between international law enforcement and domestic sustainable development may not be apparent. One may discern only a tenuous or even a dubious relationship. The two concepts, however, are inextricably, albeit indirectly, linked. This article seeks to “connect the dots” by demonstrating how cross-border law enforcement cooperation, in particular, can be instrumental in thwarting the surging threat posed by transnational crime, which, in turn, is a major impediment to sustainable development (in each of its various guises), especially in more impoverished or governance-challenged countries.
To that end, this analysis begins with a discussion of the underlying problem and, as it happens, the “middle dot” – transnational crime – including its definition, forms, dynamics, and significance, as well as reasons for its recent ascendancy. This article then turns to the object of this inquiry (or “third dot”) – sustainable development – and explores its meaning and dimensions while also describing how transnational crimes can undermine its achievement. This article next looks at the full range of law enforcement methods and tools available to domestic governments to combat transnational crime and thereby remove critical barriers to their countries’ sustainable development. As a critical part of that analysis, this article examines one of those means and the subject of this treatment (or “first dot”) – cross-border law enforcement cooperation – by describing its outsized importance and capacity for addressing transnational crime, the multiplicity of ways in which it operates, and the inherent challenges it faces. The logical sequencing of this analysis, then, is based first on identifying the core problem, then understanding its adverse effects, and finally determining how to get out in front of the problem before it wreaks havoc.