U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime is the first global agreement to comprehensively address organized crime. With its three protocols, it provides an international legal framework to improve the enforcement of organized crime, particularly international cooperation. Although this legal framework is a remarkable step toward better action on organized crime, the key definition of “organized criminal group” provided by Article 2 is extremely broad and may result in the excessive expansion of the scope of these legal instruments. As a result, efforts and resources may be dispersed and not concentrated on the most serious forms of organized crime