The notion of Organised Crime in eu law

Abstract

The contribution consider, first, the original multiplicity of national legislative solutions with respect to the crucial issue of ‘punishability’ of criminal organisations; then, identify the common standards under european harmonisation legislation, along with their respective characteristics and problems, in order to finally assess the most recent situation and the effectiveness of EU action in this area. A more general consideration on the nature of harmonisation in this area serve as background: what is at stake is not so much a rule (of EU law), but rather an actual principle (of EU law). As such, it cannot be evaluated in absolute terms of success or failure, of either standards rigidly applied or a complete discrepancy among national legislations. It is rather an open and ongoing process, which evolves according to forms of gradual, never-ending approximation. From this perspective, it may be seen that signficant progress has already been made, towards a convergence rather than a progressive divergence among national criminal law systems, as in the case, precisely, of the criminalisation of participation in criminal organisations.