The Council of Europe Laundering Convention: A recent example of a developing international criminal law

Conclusion With the Laundering Convention, the Council of Europe has contributed once again to the development of the international criminal law and to the promotion of international criminal law cooperation. The Council has shown that it is possible to elaborate a complex, highly technical convention within a period of less than a year so long as the political will exists. It is now a matter for the individual member states and other states to sign, if they have not done so, or to ratify, if they have already signed the convention. The future of the Laundering Convention lies in the hands of those states that have responsibility for its application. An efficient tool for international criminal law cooperation has been created-it must now be used.This is a revised version of a paper presented at an international workshop on Principles and Procedures for a New Transnational Criminal Law, organized jointly by the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law and the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg, Germany, May 21–25, 1991. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Council of Europe.Juris kandidat, Uppsala University 1979. The author was Secretary to the Council of Europe expert committee that elaborated the Laundering Convention.