The Legal Foundations of INTERPOL

This book is a study of the establishment and development of INTERPOL and its responsibility as an international organisation.
Part I of the book examines how INTERPOL was created as an international organisation without a formally celebrated treaty. It considers the circumstances of INTERPOL’s creation and the structure and operations of INTERPOL. This content has been significantly updated in this second edition to reflect the developments within INTERPOL since 2010.
This new edition also includes a Part II, which examines INTERPOL’s internal and external law, and situates INTERPOL’s assistance to its members in the legal regime of responsibility. It is the first text to undertake this task. Part II draws on the jurisprudence of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files and the authors’ extensive experience before this body to discuss in great detail how an individual can challenge INTERPOL’s interventions (including the issuance of red notices) on the basis of the Organization’s internal rules. Part II also describes the procedures under which INTERPOL members might challenge INTERPOL’s interventions and how an individual can hold INTERPOL responsible for breaches of its external law. Part II is integral for any practitioner or individual seeking to challenge INTERPOL and its actions.
In testing theory against practice, this book aims to contribute to the understanding of international institutional law, whilst also demystifying one of the more enigmatic international organisations of the twenty-first century.