Virtual currencies pose a serious threat to be used for money laundering, weakening the European Union's financial system. Directive (EU) 2018/843 (the fifth anti-money laundering Directive) intends to mitigate these risks by introducing a definition of virtual currencies within Union law. Some...

This articles examines 2 meanings of the term “rule of law;” the first being absence of lawlessness, and the second being the full range of laws, enforcement, that is described in the World Justice Project. Using those concepts, the article then looks at whether the rule of law, based upon...

In the last two decades prolonged instances of corporate wrongdoing in Europe have been un-covered: from Siemens’ systemic bribery to HSBC and other major bank’s money laundering issues, Dieselgate, LIBOR price-rigging, and the recent Wirecard debacle. What has driven European firms to...

This paper describes the methodology used to build the WJP Rule of Law Index – a new quantitative assessment tool designed to offer a comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice. The WJP Rule of Law Index provides new data on nine dimensions of...

State regulation of lawyers has failed to keep pace with the increased complexity and geographic scope of law practice. A particular problem is that lawyers in the branch office of a multi-jurisdictional firm are subject to the ethical rules of the state in which the branch office is located....

The dispute settlement system of the WTO was faced with major challenges in its first few years. It has functioned very well in spite of serious pressures from the sheer number of cases that were brought; the increasing complexity and economic significance of disputes; the strict,short...

It is a controversial issue as to how to assess the effectiveness of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime on the global arena. Based upon around 9,000 questionnaires circulated to AML professionals and other related staffs at the branches of banking institutions and People’s Bank of China as...

The emergence of blockchain technology will impact the world in many aspects. By recording the provenance of digital assets, the decentralized, distributed ledger technology provides many advantages and opportunities to society but not without potential negative impact that requires careful...