Vladislava Stoyanova
Senior lecturer
The crisis of a definition: Human trafficking in Bulgarian law
Author
Summary, in English
This article develops two arguments. First, at a national level in Bulgaria, the human trafficking framework is inoperable for identifying abuses worthy of consideration. By comparing the Bulgarian criminal law definition of human trafficking with the international law definition, I argue that the national criminal law definition is overly inclusive. This state of the Bulgarian criminal law makes it difficult to undertake a realistic assessment of the problem. Second, I submit that because the focus in Bulgaria has been exclusively directed towards the crime of human trafficking, the fact that the abuses of slavery, servitude and forced labour as such have not been criminalised at a domestic level has remained ignored. Thus, abuses that constitute slavery, servitude and forced labour, but do not manifest elements of human trafficking, might be left without proper investigation and prosecution.
Department/s
- Human Rights Law
- Public International Law
- Department of Law
- Migration Law
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
64-79
Publication/Series
Amsterdam Law Forum
Volume
5
Issue
1
Full text
- Available as PDF - 508 kB
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam * Faculty of Law
Topic
- Law
Keywords
- slavery
- forced labour
- Bulgaria
- human trafficking
- servitude
- public international law
- Folkrätt
Status
Published
Research group
- Human Rights Law
- Public International Law
- Migration Law
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1876-8156