Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia is a highly renowned scholar and practitioner within the field of

law and economics Law and economics, or economic analysis of law, is the application of microeconomic theory to the analysis of law, which emerged primarily from scholars of the Chicago school of economics. Economic concepts are used to explain the effects of laws ...

. Dr. Buscaglia is also an international

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

and civil society leader engaged in supporting

non-governmental organizations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

in their combat and prevention of

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

, including his support for combatting

wildlife trafficking Wildlife smuggling or trafficking involves the illegal gathering, transportation, and distribution of animals and their derivatives. This can be done either internationally or domestically. Estimates of the money generated by wildlife smuggling ...

at the Wildlife Justice Commission 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. His latest field research that Buscaglia directs covering 118 countries delves into the factors explaining the vertical economic integration of organized crime within the legal economies and the mafia capture of civil societies. As an academic, Buscaglia has published widely within the field of law and economics of development and human rights and his scientific articles have been published worldwide. Edgardo Buscaglia has also co-founded the InterAmerican and Iberian Law and Economics Association. The group he cofounded has an annual award named after him. 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 Dr. Buscaglia has published articles and accepted interviews within the general media, including New York Times, Al Jazeera, and Financial Times, among many others.

Main ideas

Dr. Buscaglia has concentrated his academic and government-related field work on the economic analysis of

and

Corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

within the private and public sectors i.e. complex crimes such as

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

arms trafficking Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal trade of small a ...

political corruption 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, in ...

, 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 Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

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 Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

, without combatting

and without applying social prevention policies against organized crime among the youth and other segments of the population at risk Buscaglia’s scholarly

jurimetrics Jurimetrics is the application of quantitative methods, and often especially probability and statistics, to law. In the United States, the journal '' Jurimetrics'' is published by the American Bar Association and Arizona State University. The '' J ...

research empirically verifies the impacts of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the

United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC, also called the Palermo Convention) is a 2000 United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime. History The convention was adopted by a r ...

on key indicators of

Organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

. Buscaglia’s research identified the systemic roots of

Political corruption 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, in ...

within the nature and structure of electoral systems worldwide and by delving into political campaign financing linked to the

vertical integration In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...

of legal businesses subject to

Money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

Buscaglia’s

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 International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, ag ...

(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

Professional career

Dr. Buscaglia received his post-doctoral training in Jurisprudence and the Social Policy Program at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

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 The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1990, he has lectured in law and economics and held visiting professorships at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Washington College Washington College is a private liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland. Maryland granted Washington College its charter in 1782. George Washington supported the founding of the college by consenting to have the "College at Chester" name ...

, 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). He is currently a Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics at Columbia University since 2005 and from 1991 until 2008 he was institutionally affiliated as a Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. 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. Buscaglia co-founded this non-governmental organization in 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buscaglia, Edgardo 1960 births Living people University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni