This course is designed for students interested in studying the criminal law’s application to what is sometimes called “white collar crime.” The offenses often involve conduct by organizations and individuals in which the primary goal is to gain pecunariary gain, in general without violence. Also, we will adress political- white collar and elite-power crimes. Much of the conduct involves seemingly ordinary business transactions, and is engaged in by those with substantial economic resources and advantages (i.e. the rich getting richer).

We will take a comparative approach to the topics to be studied, looking at these types of crimes from the perspectives of the law of the United States, European Union, Croatia, Russia, Wester Balkan etc. However, the phasis will be on the European reasearch of white-collar crime. The focus will be on how these types of crimes occur, and how difficult it can be to determine the limits of the offense. Unlike the types of crimes studied in the basic criminal law class, which are often immediately apparent as an offense (e.g. murder), economic crimes are hardly distinguishable from legal transactions. For example, a person running out of a bank with a gun and a bag of cash is probably a thief, while someone in a suit carrying a bank check might have done something wrong, but no one will be shouting for the police to stop the criminal because any violation of the law (such as bank fraud) will not become known until weeks, months, or years later – if ever.

In additon, international economic crimes will be addressed.

There will be two (2) hours of lectures per week (or online), although we may need to reschedule one or more classes due to scheduling conflicts. We ask that the students read and prepare the materials in advance of class. We will also provide one or more problems for each session that can be the focus of the discussion. Simply reading the statutes and rules does not bring to life what is actually going on in the real world, where you will be practicing law one day, so the problems allow the class to probe where the law is unclear, and to look at it from the different legal perspectives.