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Law Enforcement, Justice and Democracy in the Transnational Arena: Reflections on the War on Drugs

NCJ Number
164355
Journal
International Journal of the Sociology of Law Volume: 24 Dated: (1996) Pages: 61-75
Author(s)
J W E Sheptycki
Date Published
1996
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the implications for democratic principles of the more salient developments in international criminal law and transnational law enforcement relating to drug trafficking.
Abstract
An overview of the principles of democracy notes that in democracies the political process is transparent, and the persons responsible for political decisions are held accountability for them and may be removed from office for failure to perform their duties properly. Also, democratic political structures are assumed to require the "rule of law," which entails the notion that "governmentality" is bound by and through legal authority. The author argues that transnational law enforcement that targets transnational drug trafficking fails to comply with the aforementioned democratic principles. It rather reflects the principles of a "polity of bureaucratized experts." This concept is selected because the mid-level bureaucratic management that currently guides the practical efforts in transnational law enforcement is not conditioned by any democratic process. Many of the networks of police officers that pursue drug traffickers are subterranean, and even where they are not, there are no democratically elected members of the public to oversee policy decisions. On a transnational level, law enforcement agencies have sought to achieve an oligarchic dynamic of operation that secures their continued monopoly of practical control over the machinery of policing. The danger is that the habits developed in transnational drug law enforcement will condition other forms of policing that are currently emerging in the transnational domain. 3 notes and 36 references