The first integrated analysis of the causes and effects of diverging views of drug use within the international community.

The UN Drug Conventions - the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Psychotropic Convention, the 1972 Protocol to the Single Convention and the 1988 UN Drug Trafficking Convention - regulate the global suppression of illicit drugs. This volume examines the provisions of these conventions that require states to adopt penal measures against drugs in their domestic law. Its introductory chapters explore the controversial application of drug prohibition by international society and the historical development of this policy through the penal provisions of the drug conventions. The substantive chapters investigate the various facets of the illicit drug control system created by these penal provisions: crimes and penalties; jurisdiction and extradition; general and specific forms of drug law enforcement co-operation; and the supervision of the system by the UN drug control organs. The conclusion offers a general critique of the system and makes suggestions about its future development.

This Supplement to the seven-volume series United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, A Commentary, prepared at the University of Virginia’s Center for Oceans Law and Policy, contains additional primary documents and materials directly related to the Convention.

This book offers a comprehensive, article-by-article legal commentary on the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols on trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, and trafficking in firearms and ammunition. The Convention- often referred to by the acronym UNTOC- was approved by the UN General Assembly on 15 November 2000 and made available for governments to sign at a high-level conference in Palermo, the heartland of the Italian Mafia, on 12-15 December 2000. For this reason, UNTOC is sometimes also referred to as the 'Palermo Convention'. The Convention entered into force on 29 September 2003. The purpose of UNTOC is to promote cooperation to prevent and combat transnational organized crime more effectively. UNTOC seeks to promote consistency among national legal systems and set standards for domestic laws so that States parties can effectively combat transnational organized crime. UNTOC is supplemented by three protocols: the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Air, and Sea, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components, and Ammunition. Article by article, this books presents the text of each provision of the Convention and the Protocols, followed by a systematic analysis of their background and negotiating history, their interpretation by the Conference of the Parties and its working groups, in judicial decisions by domestic and international courts, , in the academic literature, and in official material published by international organisations, chief among them the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the guardian of UNTOC and the Protocols. The authors offer critical, scholarly commentary. The book serves as a compendium for those using, researching, or studying provisions under UNTOC and the Protocols and as a handbook for those charged with implementing and enforcing them.

Where did the regulatory underpinnings for the global drug wars come from? This book is the first fully-focused history of the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the bedrock of the modern multilateral drug control system and the focal point of global drug regulations and prohibitions. Although far from the propagator of the drug wars, the UN enabled the creation of a uniform global legal framework to effectively legalise, or regulate, their pursuit. This book thereby answers the question of where the international legal framework for drug control came from, what state interests informed its development and how complex diplomatic negotiations resulted in the current regulatory system, binding states into an element of global policy uniformity.

The three UN drug conventions comprehensively and almost universally regulate the dealing with illicit drugs worldwide. Although the treaties are prohibitive, more and more member states seek to liberalise their national drug policies and implement depenalisation, decriminalisation or even legalisation schemes. The article explores member states’ possibilities and limitations under the current treaty framework by giving an overview of their obligations, contractual exceptions and means under general public international law.

The last decades, changing societal phenomena concerning the drug problem influenced the national strategies and legal approaches of countries in a significant manner. Indeed, many European and other countries have developed a differentiated, multidisciplinary national drug policy.The pursuance of risk reduction strategies and the possible depenalisation of acts related to personal consumption remain controversial topics, though implemented in several countries. This book gives an overview of the main relevant international legal instruments dealing with the control of the drug problem.The United Nations, as well as the Council of Europe and the European Union have established an international legal framework to tackle the problem of illicit substances. The reader will find the full texts of the three United Nations drug Convention in annex of this book. On the one hand, the book provides an analysis of the latitude that Parties have within the present United Nations Conventions to develop a differentiated, integrated national drug policy. Specific attention is given to acts related to personal consumption. The latitude is discussed at the different levels of the criminal justice system, being the levels of criminalisation, reaction (including the alternative measures to sanctions and with a focus on exploring the limits and possibilities of pursuing risk reduction policies within the framework of the United Nations Conventions), prosecution, sentencing and execution of sanctions. On the other hand, the book explores the possibilities for reform that have been embedded in the United Nations Conventions.The technique of amending, the modification of substances in the schedules, the possibilities to make reservations and to denounce the Conventions is outlined.