Edgardo Buscaglia

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Edgardo Buscaglia
Edgardo Buscaglia (22025022173).jpg
Born (1960-11-25) November 25, 1960 (age 64)
Known forsenior academic and policy adviser specialized in law and economics, author, philanthropist, civil society leader

Edgardo Buscaglia is a scholar and practitioner within the field of law and economics. [1] [2] Buscaglia is also an international philanthropist and civil society leader engaged in supporting non-governmental organizations in their combat and prevention of organized crime, including his support for combatting wildlife trafficking at the Wildlife Justice Commission [3] or his philanthropic and technical support for preventing human trafficking in Mexico and Central America as Director of the International Law and Economic Development Center.

Contents

Main ideas

Buscaglia has concentrated his academic and government-related field work on the economic analysis of organized crime and Corruption within the private and public sectors i.e. complex crimes such as human trafficking, arms trafficking, political corruption, drugs trafficking or acts of terrorism, among nineteen other types of crimes which have a negative impact on the stability of a political system in general and of a democracy in particular.

Buscaglia coined the concept "paradox of expected punishment" understood as the pernicious effect of combatting criminal enterprises within the State and private sector by only applying military/police punishment. In an academic peer-reviewed publication Buscaglia empirically demonstrates that organized crime and public sector corruption will both increase if the State only applies more police and military force against criminal networks without at the same time reducing money laundering, without combatting political corruption and without applying social prevention policies against organized crime among the youth and other segments of the population at risk [4]

Buscaglia's scholarly jurimetrics research empirically verifies the impacts of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime on key indicators of Organized crime.

Buscaglia's research identified the systemic roots of Political corruption within the nature and structure of electoral systems worldwide and by delving into political campaign financing linked to the vertical integration of legal businesses subject to Money laundering [5]

Buscaglia's law and economics ideas and institutional public policy proposals focused on strengthening the exercise of human rights also overlap with his pro bono work as a internationally renowned philanthropist. Buscaglia's academic peer-reviewed publications have empirically shown that when a population endures the widespread and systemic lack of access to public goods and services considered as human rights in International human rights law (such as the access to justice, the access to water or the access to health services) then organized crime networks will engage in social control of the local population by occupying these state vacuums in order to gain de facto social authority to become "social providers" of public goods [6]

Professional career

Buscaglia received his post-doctoral training in Jurisprudence and the Social Policy Program at the University of California at Berkeley Law School. He also received a master's in law and economics and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1990, he has lectured in law and economics and held visiting professorships at Georgetown University, Washington College, at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico; Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM, México), Ghent University (Belgium), Hamburg University (Germany), University of Virginia in Charlottesville (USA), Universidad Nacional del Sur, Universidad de San Andrés and National University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). [7] [8]

Since 1990, Buscaglia studies the impact of legal and judicial frameworks on economic development and the economic analysis of organized crime and associated corruption. He has participated in field research and provided assistance for international organizations on the economic analysis of judicial and civil society sectors in several countries within Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East [9]

He is currently a Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics at Columbia University since 2005 [10] and from 1991 until 2008 he was institutionally affiliated as a Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. [7] Also, he serves pro-bono as President of the Citizens' Action Institute (Instituto de Acción Ciudadana), a civil society organization aimed at establishing international networks for rescuing and protecting victims of trans-national organized crimes. [11] Buscaglia co-founded this non-governmental organization in 2007.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organized crime</span> Groupings of highly centralized criminal enterprises

Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, rebel forces, and separatists, are politically motivated. Many criminal organizations rely on fear or terror to achieve their goals or aims as well as to maintain control within the organization and may adopt tactics commonly used by authoritarian regimes to maintain power. Some forms of organized crime simply exist to cater towards demand of illegal goods in a state or to facilitate trade of goods and services that may have been banned by a state. Sometimes, criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts protection money from shopkeepers. Street gangs may often be deemed organized crime groups or, under stricter definitions of organized crime, may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization can also be referred to as an outfit, a gang, crime family, mafia, mob, (crime) ring, or syndicate; the network, subculture, and community of criminals involved in organized crime may be referred to as the underworld or gangland. Sociologists sometimes specifically distinguish a "mafia" as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi-law enforcement. Academic studies of the original "Mafia", the Italian Mafia, as well as its American counterpart, generated an economic study of organized crime groups and exerted great influence on studies of the Russian mafia, the Chinese triads, the Hong Kong triads, and the Japanese yakuza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political corruption</span> Use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain

Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise, such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, although it is not restricted to these activities.

Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for the rule of law. Governance is "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented ". Governance in this context can apply to corporate, international, national, or local governance as well as the interactions between other sectors of society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law and economics</span> Application of economic theory to analysis of legal systems

Law and economics, or economic analysis of law, is the application of microeconomic theory to the analysis of law. The field emerged in the United States during the early 1960s, primarily from the work of scholars from the Chicago school of economics such as Aaron Director, George Stigler, and Ronald Coase. The field uses economics concepts to explain the effects of laws, assess which legal rules are economically efficient, and predict which legal rules will be promulgated. There are two major branches of law and economics; one based on the application of the methods and theories of neoclassical economics to the positive and normative analysis of the law, and a second branch which focuses on an institutional analysis of law and legal institutions, with a broader focus on economic, political, and social outcomes, and overlapping with analyses of the institutions of politics and governance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglass North</span> American economist and Nobel laureate (1920–2015)

Douglass Cecil North was an American economist known for his work in economic history. Along with Robert Fogel, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1993. In the words of the Nobel Committee, North and Fogel "renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corruption</span> Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power

Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities like bribery, influence peddling, and embezzlement, as well as practices that are legal in many countries, such as lobbying. Political corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transnational organized crime</span> Organized crime across national borders

Transnational organized crime (TOC) is organized crime coordinated across national borders, involving groups or markets of individuals working in more than one country to plan and execute illegal business ventures. In order to achieve their goals, these criminal groups use systematic violence and corruption. Common transnational organized crimes include conveying drugs, conveying arms, trafficking for sex, toxic waste disposal, materials theft and poaching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Jordan</span>

Human rights in Jordan are similar to or better than those elsewhere in the Middle East. Human Rights Watch reported in January 2018 that although recently there have been far-reaching reforms of the laws and regulations in the country, abuses against basic rights such as freedom of expression persisted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Police of Colombia</span> Law enforcement agency

The National Police of Colombia is the national police force of the Republic of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military Forces of Colombia, it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. The National Police is the only civilian police force in Colombia. The force's official functions are to protect the Colombian nation, enforce the law by constitutional mandate, maintain and guarantee the necessary conditions for public freedoms and rights and to ensure peaceful cohabitation among the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Russia</span>

Crime in Russia refers to the multivalent issues of organized crime, extensive political and police corruption, and all aspects of criminality at play in Russia. Violent crime in Siberia is much more apparent than in Western Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Pakistan</span>

Crime in Pakistan is present in various forms, especially in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Peshawar, Multan, Hyderabad, Islamabad and Quetta. Among other general crimes, it includes major crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, burglary, carjacking and corruption. For example, in the city of Lahore, 379 murders, 500 attempted murders, 2,650 abductions and 55 rapes have occurred in 2019. A direct relationship has been identified between the crime rate and unemployment rate in Pakistan. Elevated unemployment diminishes the attractiveness of legal endeavors, consequently raising the potential gains from illicit pursuits. As a result, the likelihood of an upsurge in illegal activities rises. Crime statistics of Pakistan shows that there is a rapid increase in the number of crime reported over time like other countries of the world, mainly due to high unemployment, rising poverty, increasing inflation and urbanization. Some other non-economic factors are also responsible for it.

Crime in the People's Republic of China occurs in various forms. The government of the People's Republic of China does not release exact unified statistics on crime rates and the rate of criminal offending due to such information being considered politically and socially sensitive. Scarce official statistics released are the subject of much academic debate due to allegations of statistical fabrication, under-reporting and corruption. The illegal drug trade in China is a significant driver of violent crime, including murder.

Economics of corruption deals with the misuse of public power for private benefit and its economic impact on society. This discipline aims to study the causes and consequences of corruption and how it affects the economic functioning of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Venezuela</span>

In 2011 Venezuela was a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Venezuela's political, economic, and social concerns contributed to the factors and types of human trafficking in the country. In particular, the severe poverty in Venezuela has increased the rate of human trafficking. Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation, lured from poor regions in the nation's interior to urban and tourist areas. Victims are recruited through false job offers and subsequently forced into prostitution or conditions of labor exploitation. Child prostitution in urban areas and child sex tourism in resort destinations such as Margarita Island appear to be growing. Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation to Western Europe and Mexico, in addition to Caribbean destinations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, and the Dominican Republic. Men, women, and children from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and the People's Republic of China are trafficked to and through Venezuela and may be subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.

Mexico's law enforcement operates with three distinct powers of authority and jurisdiction: federal, state and municipal. With the recent reform of former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Mexico's Federal Police, the agency was dissolved due to corruption, links with organized crime and similar issues. A new agency replaced the Federal Police which is the Mexican National Guard.

Madagascar ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in South Korea</span>

South Korea has a relatively low crime rate compared to other industrialized countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Cuba</span>

Though the Cuban government does not release official crime statistics, Cuba is considered one of the safer countries in Latin America. Gun crime is virtually nonexistent, drug trafficking has been largely curtailed, and there is below-average crisis intervention from police. Murder rates are also below those of most Latin American countries, with an intentional homicide rate of 5.00/100,000 inhabitants in 2016, lower than any other country in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corruption in Bolivia</span>

Corruption in Bolivia is a major problem that has been called an accepted part of life in the country. It can be found at all levels of Bolivian society. Citizens of the country perceive the judiciary, police and public administration generally as the country's most corrupt. Corruption is also widespread among officials who are supposed to control the illegal drug trade and among those working in and with extractive industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable Development Goal 16</span> United Nations sustainable development goal

Sustainable Development Goal 16 is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, the official wording is: "Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels". The Goal has 12 targets and 23 indicators.

References

  1. Berkeley Electronic Press. ""The Law and Economics of Development " by Edgardo Buscaglia". Works.bepress.com. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  2. Edgardo Buscaglia. "0580: LAW AND ECONOMICS OF DEVELOPMENT" (PDF). Encyclo.findlaw.com. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
  3. "Edgardo Buscaglia - Wildlife Justice Commission".
  4. Edgardo Buscaglia (January 2008). "The Paradox of Expected Punishment: Legal and Economic Factors Determining Success and Failure in the Fight against Organized Crime". Review of Law & Economics.
  5. Edgardo Buscaglia (October 2018). "THE VERTICAL INTEGRATION OF ORGANISED CRIME LINKED TO POLITICAL CORRUPTION: AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF ASSET FORFEITURES AND HUMAN RIGHTS". JOURNAL OF INSTITUTIONAL STUDIES.
  6. Edgardo Buscaglia (May 2015). "Law & Economics of the Human Rights to Access Justice". CiteSeerX   10.1.1.1018.1200 .
  7. 1 2 "Edgardo Buscaglia | Hoover Institution". Hoover.org. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  8. "Programa de Actualización sobre Prevención Global de Lavado de Activos y Financiación del Terrorismo" (PDF).
  9. Buscaglia, Edgardo (2008). "The Paradox of Expected Punishment: Legal and Economic Factors Determining Success and Failure in the Fight Against Organized Crime by Edgardo Buscaglia". SSRN   1121129.
  10. "Edgardo Buscaglia | Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics | Columbia Law School". Law.columbia.edu. 1961-11-09. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  11. "Instituto de Accion Ciudadana para la Justicia y la Democracia AC". Institutodeaccionciudadana.org. Retrieved 2016-09-25.