The dissertation defines and provides an exposition as well as a legal analysis of the underlying contraposition between the two distinct needs characterising INTERPOL´s role in the international scene.
The doctoral dissertation in the field of Criminal Law and Judicial Procedure will be examined at the faculty of Business and Social Sciences at Joensuu.
What is the topic of your doctoral research? Why is it important to study the topic?
Since its creation in 1923, at the time with the name International Criminal Police Commission, INTERPOL has provided a platform for domestic police services and forces to communicate directly, rather than through diplomatic channels. With the gradual expansion of INTERPOL, an increasing number of police forces and services from countries with diverse legal traditions and criminal justice systems have been put in a position to cooperate and communicate directly with each other. This is significant, as counting 195 members, INTERPOL enjoys a vast membership.
This type of unfiltered cooperation is meant to favour effectiveness, but it continues to pose several legal challenges. In various instances national police institutions enforce foreign legal documents in their territory based on the sole fact that they were received through INTERPOL. Were such documents not channelled through INTERPOL, they most likely would not be considered as legitimate basis for cooperation. Additionally, there are legal issues arising from cases of unintentional as well as intentional misuse of INTERPOL´s platform. Particularly concerning is the fact that many authoritarian states systematically abuse the tools of the organisation as a way of tracking political dissidents and non-aligned members of the media. Indeed, on several occasions, states have fabricated criminal evidence to maliciously persuade INTERPOL and its members of the necessity to track down and/or extradite innocent individuals. Unsurprisingly, in such instances the individuals who are the subjects of such cooperation can find themselves in extremely uncomfortable situations, including significant violations of their human rights.
Regrettably, the way INTERPOL is structured, and how its modus operandi is arranged and regulated, is accruing the effects of cases of misuse and abuse. This is a complex situation, as INTERPOL has undeniably a strong and justifiable interest in favouring interactions and connections among as many police institutions from different states as possible, pending the everlasting risk of allowing the formation of criminal havens.
This dissertation defines and provides an exposition as well as a legal analysis of the underlying contraposition between the two distinct needs characterising INTERPOL´s role in the international scene. The first is the need of upholding global security, achievable by granting smooth and unwavering international police cooperation among countries. The second is the need of safeguarding rights and interests of those individuals who are subjects of such cooperation. Further, this dissertation shows how the surge of these two contrasting needs has deep roots in the history of international police cooperation in general, and how contemporary issues can be reconnected to past, yet still extant, legal issues afflicting INTERPOL.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?
this dissertation is built upon and wishes to address two sets of research questions:1. Is there an underlying process of balancing international police cooperation between the contrasting needs of protecting rights of individuals and upholding global security in INTERPOL? If so, does INTERPOL have the legal authority to be in charge of finding a balance between security and procedural justice? If so, on what legal basis, and to what extent?2. Can the rights of individuals subject of cooperation be better protected without compromising the effectiveness of cooperation?
Concerning the first set of research questions, this dissertation shows that such exercise in balancing does exist, and INTERPOL has favoured effectiveness in cooperation over safeguarding rights and interests of individuals subjects of cooperation throughout many phases of its existence. This clearly transpires in the way upon which INTERPOL has developed its own modus operandi, and legal framework. Moreover, the cooperation promoted by INTERPOL, particularly considering the way the system of red notices is structured and implemented, has caused the organisation to function beyond its original mandate. The organisation has in fact created, perhaps inadvertently, a proto-system of judicial cooperation. On this point, this dissertation argues is that while INTERPOL has indeed gone beyond its original mandate, this situation appears to have been crystallised in international law.
Concerning the second set of research questions, mindful of the need to preserve and enhance global security, the dissertation opts to avoid examining ways to carry out radical changes in INTERPOL´s system. Instead, the research is directed to the elaboration of surgical interventions to improve INTERPOL´s existing system, in order to accrue safeguards and thus to better protect the rights of individuals. In particular, the dissertation devises appropriate changes to the system of notices and diffusions. Additionally, the dissertation encourages the use of the remedies and sanctions already present in INTERPOL’s internal regulations, including the more extreme ones, such as those devised in Articles 17(5), 131 (1), and 131 (3) of the INTERPOL’s Rules on the Processing of Data (RPD). At last, this dissertation emphasises how while the issues afflicting INTERPOL’s systems are global in nature, part of the solutions might still be local. A more cautionary approach by INTERPOL’s members, combined with a better awareness of how INTERPOL’s system works in practise, might already bring improvements.
What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
This doctoral dissertation is an article based one. It consists of an introductory part, the compilation of articles, and an appendix. The articles are titled:1. Giulio Calcara, ‘Rethinking Legal Research on Matters of International Police Cooperation: Issues, Methods and Raison d’Être’ (2019) 40(2) Liverpool Law Review (Springer) 95.2. Giulio Calcara, ‘A Transnational Police Network Co-operating up to the Limits of the Law: Examination of the Origin of INTERPOL’ (2020) 11(4) Transnational Legal Theory (Routledge) 521.3. Giulio Calcara, ‘Balancing International Police Cooperation: INTERPOL and the Undesirable Trade-off Between Rights of Individuals and Global Security’ (2021) 42 Liverpool Law Review (Springer) 111.4. Giulio Calcara, ‘Preventing the Misuse of INTERPOL: A Study on the Legal Safeguards of the Organization’ (2018) 87(1) Nordic Journal of International Law (Brill) 56. The appendix consists of a contribution for the encyclopaedic database Oxford International Organization (OXIO):• Giulio Calcara, ‘INTERPOL’s Rules on the Processing of Data, 30th June 2012 (III/IRPD/GA/2011)’ (2019) 441 Oxford International Organizations (OXIO) (Oxford University Press). Being an article-based dissertation, the compilation of articles is certainly the core of this project. While each of the four articles can be read as an independent piece of scholarship, viewed in the order in which they are laid out in this dissertation brings about their full compiled realisation. As the dissertation is an article based one, a variety of methods have been adopted and the legal research follows both a doctrinal and a socio-legal approach. Additionally, this research project encompasses the study of several fields of law, including legal history, public international law, international institutional law, international criminal law, transnational criminal law, and international human rights law.
The doctoral dissertation of Giulio Calcara, LL.M, entitled Assessing the Past and Present Role of INTERPOL: Balancing Between the Need of Upholding Global Security by Connecting Police Institutions of Different Countries and the Need of Safeguarding the Rights of Individuals, will be examined at the faculty of Business and Social Sciences on 11.11.2022 at 12 noon in the Aurora Building, Hall AU100 and online. The Opponent will be Professor Minna Kimpimäki, University of Lapland, and the Custos will be Professor Matti Tolvanen, University of Eastern Finland. Language of the dissertation event is English. Public examination will be streamed live.
For further information, please contact: giulio.calcara(at)uef.fi