UQ Law School seminar focuses on organized crime

Queensland and European Union laws enacted to stamp out organized crime will be the focus of a University of Queensland Law School seminar on Friday, Jan. 24.

Seminar presenter Professor Susanne Reindl-Krauskopf, of the University of Vienna Law School, said  the event would focus on anti-organized crime offences, police powers and other law enforcement measures adopted in Austria and the European Union and  Australian laws against “bikie gangs.”
“The difficulties to define and combat organized crime are not unique to Australia,” Professor Reindl-Krauskopf said. “Other countries also find it difficult to articulate clear boundaries about the constituent elements of criminal organizations.
“In Austria, for example, a group of animal rights activists has been caught up in criminal proceedings involving charges relating to criminal organizations.”
Professor Reindl-Krauskopf and UQ Law Professor Andreas Schloenhardt are examining the criminal justice response to organized crime worldwide.
Their research project, “Transnational Organised Crime – International Law and Domestic Practice” examines a range of crimes commonly associated with organized gangs, such as people smuggling, human trafficking, social security fraud, corruption and cybercrime.
Professor Schloenhardt said foreign jurisdictions had refrained from labelling groups such as “bikie” gangs as criminal organizations, imposing control orders on gang members and creating offences for the mere association of gang members.
“The types of infringements on civil liberties envisaged by Queensland’s new laws would be unimaginable and not permissible in the European Union and cannot be reconciled with international human rights standards,” Professor Schloenhardt said.
“Further complicating matters is the contentious distinction between criminal organizations and terrorist groups, which many laws fail to recognize.”
This seminar will be part of the TC Beirne School of Law Research Seminar Series: Criminalising Organised Crime: Austrian and European Perspectives
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