The Challenges of Illegal Trafficking in the Mediterranean Area

The book deals with illicit trafficking in the Mediterranean, seen as a borderline issue between mobility and security under a strongly interdisciplinary approach. The opening part is dedicated to issues that transversally concern illegal trafficking: criminological, criminal law, criminal procedure, but also international law issues. This part presents a kind of general theory of illegal trafficking, showing its recurring aspects and identifying the legal and criminal-political issues that would be best addressed by a unified approach to the matter. The other parts are devoted to presenting, instead, a special part overview of illegal trafficking. The second and the third section are devoted, in particular, to illegal traffics having human beings as their objects. More specifically, the second part examines smuggling of migrants, which has a central - criminological and criminal-political - relevance among the illegal traffics taking place in the Mediterranean. The third part dealswith the neighbouring theme of human trafficking, especially in its connection with the problem of labour exploitation. Finally, the fourth part focuses on some trafficking in goods, offering a selected and representative overview of some of the most significant forms that such trafficking can take: tobacco trafficking, drug trafficking and trafficking in cultural goods.

Vincenzo MILITELLO 

Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Palermo (Law School). Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (1996-1997), Jean Monnet Fellow (2015-2018; 2019-2021) and since 1984 repeatedly Senior Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institut for International and Foreign Criminal Law (now for the Study of Crime, Security and Law) in Freiburg (Germany). Author of many publications, also in international journals and books, in the fields of Criminal Law and of Comparative, European and International Criminal Law about various topics (e.g. Negligence, Causality, Risk, Sentencing; Economic crime; Transnational Organized Crime). Co-Director of the Book series “Quaderni di diritto penale comparato, internazionale ed europeo” and member of several editorial boards of criminal justice journals (e.g. Goltdammer’s Archiv für Strafrecht, Revista portuguesa de ciencia criminal; Rivista trimestrale diritto penale dell’economia). Principal investigator of European and International Research Projects (European Joint Project on Transnational Organized Crime in the EU Falcone-program), IFO - Illegal Flow Observations, GLODERS-Global Dimensions of Extortion Racket Systems, NESMeS- The New Era of Smuggling on Mediterranean Sea; EUBeMS - Europe between Mobility and Security: the Challenges of Illicit Trades in the Mediterranean Area). Lecturer at national and international conferences in twenty countries. Moreover, Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Palermo.

Alessandro SPENA

Professor of Criminal law at the University of Palermo. Senior Visiting Fellow at Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security (York University, Toronto - 2012); Jemolo Fellow at Nuffield College (Oxford University - 2013); Senior Visiting Fellow at Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Freiburg i.Br. (2024). Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence “Europe between Mobility and Security: The Challengesof Illicit Trades in the Mediterranean Area (EUMoSIT)” (2019 - 2022) (P.I. Vincenzo Militello), based at the University of Palermo. Project Manager of the Jean Monnet Module on “Mobility, Security and the new media” (2015-2018) (P.I. Vincenzo Militello), based at the University of Palermo. He has extensively written, among other things, on corruption, hate speech, criminalization of migration and the relationships between fundamental rights and criminal law.