This article analyzes the so-called political-criminal nexus in Italy, that is, the relationships of exchange and collusion between politicians and civil servants, on the one hand, and members of organised crime - and specifically Southern Italian mafia - groups on the other. Its main thesis is that the political-criminal nexus in Italy finds nowadays no parallel in any other Western, developed nation, with the possible exception of Japan. The extraordinary intensity of Italy's political-criminal nexus is related to the specificity of Italy's organised crime. This is discussed in the first section of the article. The following ones briefly sketch the evolution of the political-criminal nexus since Italy's Unification in 1861 and then focus on the last thirty years. The recognition of the recent law enforcement successes is complemented by a discussion of the factors that favour the perpetuation of mafia organisations and the political-criminal nexus in the future.

The writings of Cesare Lombroso reflect to a high degree the crime problems being discussed in his time. This is certainly true for the phenomenon of the Italian mafia. Inspired by others writers, press reports and his own observations he came to the conclusion that criminal associations belonging to the Sicilian mafia and the ‘Ndrangheta, in particular consisted of professional criminals and were quite often headed by an intelligent born criminal. In a quite detailed manner he described the ways in which these organizations were structured and the initiation rites that were applied to youngsters who wanted to join them. Lombroso made no secret of the political role the mafia groupings played in Italy, but he warned at the same time that one should take into account that these groupings also disguised themselves as political organizations in order to cover up their true nature: nothing else than criminal organisations. This warning gives room for the idea that - like in the United States - the Italian mafia could also take root in other European countries than Italy itself and not only use them as places to hide from the Italian police and judicial authorities or as market places to trade in illegal goods and services.

In this article the author explores - on the basis of Mitchel Lasser's book Judicial deliberations - the possibilities of enlarging the legitimacy of the Dutch Cassation Court (Hoge Raad). After a broad theoretical analysis of several concepts of legitimacy he describes the societal position of de Hoge Raad as highest court vis-à-vis rivals, such as the European Courts, the Council of State (Raad van State) and the Council of the Judiciary (Raad voor de rechtspraak). He argues that the cassation institute has to innovate itself and suggest new ways of exerting judicial leadership.

Quality of organization and quality management are different concepts. The CEPEJ report on efficiency and quality of justice refers to a state of affairs. Quality management is a set of planned, reactive and proactive actions to enhance organisation development in order to improve the functioning of an organisation. Based on case studies on quality management in several COE member states, a distinction is suggested between various levels of involvement of a ministry of justice or a council for the judiciary in quality management in the courts and/or the court administration. A restricted comparative analyses suggests that cooperation between courts and a ministry of justice is based on mutual trust, where the ministry of justice does hardly interfere. In most countries, however, interactions between the court organisations and the ministry of justice to enhance quality management are coordinated at the central level.

The upsurge in the use of economic sanctions in the post-Cold War era has prompted much scholarly and policy debate over their effectiveness and humanitarian consequences. Remarkably little attention, however, has been devoted to their criminalizing consequences and legacy for the post-sanctions period. In this article, the author develops an analytical framework identifying and categorizing the potential criminalizing effects of sanctions across place (within and around the targeted country) and time (during and after the sanctions period). This framework is applied and evaluated through an in-depth examination of the case of Yugoslavia. For comparative leverage and to assess the applicability of the argument beyond the Yugoslavia case, the analysis is briefly extended to Croatia. The article suggests that sanctions can unintentionally contribute to the criminalization of the state, economy, and civil society of both the targeted country and its immediate neighbors, fostering a symbiosis between political leaders, organized crime, and transnational smuggling networks. This symbiosis, in turn, can persist beyond the lifting of sanctions, contributing to corruption and crime and undermining the rule of law.

This article describes the relation between the murder on the Walloon social-democratic politician André Cools on 18^th July 1991 at Liege and the corruption case Agusta - dealing with the purchase of army helicopters - in order to reflect on typical Belgian criminological issues in this political organized crime topic. The murder committed by Tunisian hit-men was ordered through the influence of the personal cabinet of Van der Biest, a former minister. During the murder investigation a link with the Agusta corruption case was discovered and would tear down several ministers as well as the former NATO Secretary-General Willy Claes. Due to the existence of especially journalistic sources and a lack of scientific criminological material, the conclusions of this article are strictly personal. The murder and the corruption prove the fact that political organized crime was a reality in Belgium. This case can stand as a scholarly example in the study of political organized crime in Belgium.

This article compares ICT in European judicial systems based on the 2008 CEPEJ report on efficiency and quality of justice. It ends by discussing whether ICT is changing the administration of justice. Office automation, jurisprudence databases, e-mail and internet access for judges and clerks have been implemented in most courts in Europe. Case registration systems were less widely introduced, and case and court management systems even less. The forerunners among the judicial systems are ahead when it comes to digital access and external communication. The inaccuracy of the CEPEJ report makes drawing more detailed conclusions problematic. Some observations from other sources show that managing and developing ICT can be difficult for judiciaries. ICT's potential is in enhancing timeliness, access, consistency and public trust. Increased public scrutiny and the availability of information engender predictability. However, judging ultimately involves resolving issues whose outcome is unpredictable.

In the ongoing effort to create a post-imperial Dutch Kingdom, one in which colonial categories have no place, preparations are underway to reorganize this transatlantic political entity. The BES islands, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, will be granted the status of overseas municipalities of the Netherlands. Such welcoming efforts by mandarins in The Hague must however be based upon a sound understanding of how the cultural sensibilities of many Caribbean Dutch continue to be impacted by the lingering memories of the colonialism. Throughout the Dutch Caribbean isles, these lingering memories have given rise to Hulanda, a collection of fantastic spectres supposedly representing the benevolent and malevolent mindsets of the European Dutch to whom the future allegedly belongs. By specifically focusing on Saban imaginings of Hulanda, as well as offering modes to exorcize these specific spectres, this essay seeks to contribute to the process of mutual recognition within the Dutch Kingdom.

The regulation regarding the law enforcement in the new construction of the Netherlands Antilles has to be adapted. The country of the Netherlands Antilles will be divided in three parts: two more or less autonomous countries (Curaçao and Sint Maarten) and the remaining islands (the third part) will fall directly under Dutch rule. In this article special attention is being paid to the law enforcement on the islands (and countries) Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Will it be possible (in the future) for the Dutch Minister of Justice to give guidelines or orders to the prosecution office based in Curaçao and Sint Maarten? It has been agreed that the countries of the Netherlands, Sint Maarten and Curaçao will consult regularly on prosecution policy in order to coordinate their actions. Also a new legal possibility is created for all three Ministers of Justice (including the Dutch minister) to give guidelines or orders to the prosecution, but in special cases only after approval of the Common Court of Justice.

In this article four possible relations of the credit crunch and corporate crime are examined. A first relation is that cases of accounting fraud have contributed to the causation of the crisis. Due to these scandals the trust in large corporations and the financial sector would have been eroded. A second possible relation is the reverse: the crisis will lead to more corporate crime. Because of the crisis companies run into financial difficulties. In their despair they could try to cut costs by not complying with regulations or they could try to gain illegal profits through fraud. The third relation is the criminalization of more unethical corporate behavior. The moral outrage on the behavior of banks and insurance companies that contributed to the crisis might lead to an increased labeling of risky or greedy of corporate executives as crime. This will result in more regulation. The fourth and final relation is that these amplification effects will lead to the discovery of more corporate crime.

The subjects fraud and corruption play an important role in the recent debate on the constitutional changes within the Netherlands Antilles and the ‘status aparte’ of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The Netherlands and the various islands keep passing the blame on one another when it comes to fraud and corruption. It seems there is little willingness to look at the underlying causes or to express self-criticism. In this article an attempt is made to outline what is really going on in the field of fraud and corruption in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Several investigations on fraud and corruption committed by politicians in the past fifteen years will be addressed. Furthermore several socio-cultural, political and economic factors that play a role in causing fraud and corruption are being discussed. In this way the author hopes to contribute to a more constructive debate about the issue of fraud and corruption.

Trust between people and institutions is essential for the functioning of society. In this paper the author distinguishes trust and confidence. Confidence is the optimism or pessimism of consumers and investors about the future, about the Dutch economy and about the financial situation of their own household. Consumer confidence declined sharply after 2007, with negative consequences for the sales of houses and cars. A low level of trust is threatening for the functioning of institutions and society. Determinants of trust are: competence, stability, integrity, benevolence, transparency, value congruency and reputation. The first four determinants are ‘dissatisfiers’, while the last three are ‘satisfiers’. Financial institutions have to meet the criteria on the first four determinants without a compensation by the last three determinants. The last three determinants offer options for additional profiling, positioning and differentiation. The recovery of confidence will happen sooner than the recovery of trust. Confidence is related to general economic developments. The recovery of trust is a slower process, because of the integrity of persons and institutions. People want to see ‘proofs’ of a changed behaviour before they trust persons and institutions again. This means that a prolonged trust crisis is to be expected, even when confidence is already optimistic.

The concept of risk and the practice of financial risk management are important factors in the present-day financial world. Handbooks explain this focus on risk as a reaction to increased volatility of prices, interest rates and exchange rates since the early 1970s. Financial economists have developed mathematical models and quantitative techniques to hedge the risks of financial transactions. The financial innovations developed in this process, so-called derivatives, are derived from older forms of intertemporal transactions, such as options, futures, forwards and warrants. The use of derivatives has grown rapidly since the early 1970s. A number of authors has pointed out that the widespread use of these financial instruments to hedge risks at the level of banks and corporations has increased systemic risk at the macro-level. Some authors think that risk management is principally impossible, as uncertainty reigns the world. Others have pointed out that financial organizations have used derivatives not only for risk management, but also for other less lofty organizational purposes, such as creating excessive credit and taking highly leveraged positions. While this criticism is generally valid, it should be realized that the use of quantitative techniques and the practice of derivatives cannot be banned from the present-day financial world.

In recent years the Dutch radical animal movement has manifested itself through arson, threats and destruction of property. This article describes the rise of the radical movement and its tendency towards violence. While the animal movement has its roots in nineteenth century romanticism, the anarchism of the sixties and the squatting movement of the eighties gave way to a more radical animal movement. The anti-establishment movement of the sixties turned against intensive farming. When the punk movement of the eighties freed itself from an overwhelming sense of doom, it gave rise to a new attitude, which rejected drugs, alcohol, and meat. The so-called Straight Edge Movement developed into one of the driving forces behind the recent animal related violence. Hiding behind the facade of the Animal Liberation Front the activists are strongly convinced that they have morality on their side while targeting farms, cattle trucks, and animal test facilities. Many animal activists feel that Dutch law as it is, does not protect animals in a sufficient way. Another problem is that animal laws are hardly being upheld. Inspections of farms, slaughterhouses and transportation vehicles are rare, prosecutors usually give no priority to animal cases, and judges and the rare judicial sentences are usually extremely mild. This leads radical activists to a conclusion that one of them wrote on a wall: ‘There is no justice, just us’.

The increase of piracy attacks in the Horn of Africa as of 2007-2008 as well as its changing face towards types of maritime terrorism, has given rise to the question as to whether the contemporary system on the Laws of the High Seas needs to be revisited.
In particular, the question merits thought as to the effectiveness of the adjudicatory system in piracy cases. At present, this is left into the hands of national jurisdictions to decide whether to investigate and prosecute such cases. However, the discretionary powers of states as to such prosecutions result in many lacunae. Should or could the International Criminal Court, instead of national jurisdictions, assume jurisdiction in these matters? If not, is there ample argument for the advent of an ad hoc international criminal tribunal on this area? In this article, answers to these queries will be provided.