NDLS Conference on Asset Stripping: Responses to the Financing of Terrorism and Crime

A two-day conference begins tomorrow at Notre Dame University London Law Center with more than 25 experts exploring the financing of terrorism and strategies to combat terrorism, with a keen focus on ISIS.

The event, sponsored by Notre Dame, University of Sussex, University of Leeds and the Arts & Humanities Research Council will bring together academics, practitioners and senior government officials to take a critical assessment of current strategies to fight the financing of terrorism and crime in a rapidly changing context, said Professor Jimmy Gurule of Notre Dame Law School.

“ISIS is the wealthiest terrorist organization in the world,” Gurule said. “However, unlike al Qaeda, ISIS is largely self-funded, raising money from the sale of oil on the black market and ransom payments for the release of kidnap victims.

“The London law conference will discuss legislation and other legal tools, domestic and international, needed to effectively deny ISIS the ability to move money globally to finance its deadly agenda."

Speakers from throughout England, as well as the United States, the Netherlands, Italy, and Malaysia will be participating in the conference.

Programming includes:

• Money Laundering: policing economic crime
• Domestic policies and laws
• Terrorist listing and sanctions
• The civil sector and terrorism financing

The AHRC funded a series of three workshops designed to bring together key stakeholders from policy, practice and research backgrounds to explore emerging issues surrounding criminal and terrorist assets. The first workshop was in October at the University of Manchester. The Notre Dame conference is the second.