Legislative Tools Needed to Combat Money Laundering Crimes. A Comparative Analytical Study of Arab, British, and American Money Laundering Laws

Abstract

The security of any country in the world is no longer isolated from others, and crime is no longer confined to geographic borders. It has also become non-traditional, unrestricted by time or place—attributes that are all a result of globalization and the reality of the world as a small village.  Money laundering is a crime that has come to embody all these characteristics and casts a severe shadow over community security, national economies, and even over the political entities struggling in many countries worldwide. This study analyzes all Arab money laundering laws and compares them with the money laundering legislations in England and some states in the United States. It explores the legal and historical roots of this crime, the extent of agreement on a common terminology in these legislations, as well as the legal nature of criminal liability in money laundering offenses and the need to deviate from general provisions in many cases. The community's interest in preserving its economic structure from any destruction or interference necessitates that the criminal liability for money laundering crimes have specific provisions governing it. However, this deviation must be structured and based on a set of principles that define and regulate it, which is discussed in this research.