Valvi, E. A. (2023). The role of legal professionals in the European and international legal and regulatory framework against money laundering. Journal of Money Laundering Control, 26(7), 28-52.
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of the present study is to shed light on the role of legal practitioners, namely, lawyers
and notaries, in the fight against money laundering: Are they considered as facilitators or obstacles against
money laundering? How does the global and the EU legal framework deal with the legal professionals?
Design/methodology/approach – The research follows a deductive approach attempting to respond to
questions such as: How do the lawyers’ and notaries’ societies react in front of the anti-money laundering
measures that concern them and why? What are the discrepancies between the lawyers’ professional secrecy
and the obligations that EU anti-money laundering legislation assigns them?
Findings – This study disclosures the response of the European union and international legal and
regulatory framework as well as the reflexes of the international and European legal professionals’
associations to this danger. It also demonstrates the reaction of lawyers against European union anti-money
laundering legislation, to the point that it limits not only the confidentiality principle but also the position of
the European judicial systems to the contradiction between this principle and the lawyers’ obligation to report
their suspicions to the authorities.
Research limitations/implications – To fulfil the study goals, it was necessary to overcome some
obstacles, like the limitation of existing sources. Indeed, transnational empirical research considering the
professionals who facilitate money laundering is narrow. Besides, policymakers and academics only recently
expressed more interest in money laundering and its facilitators.