International Law Department

The International Law Department was the department of the Danaan Ministry for Justice which primarily delt with international law enforcement cooperation and with international criminal threats to the Danaan High Kingdom. Its agents based in Danaan embassies throughout the world filed extradition requests, shared information on international criminal conspiracies, and provided counsel for Danaans accused of a crime abroad. Field operations were largely, although not entirely, limited to enforcement actions against the activities of international criminal networks in the Danaan High Kingdom, taken in coordination with law enforcement agencies in other nations where the same networks operated. Field operations overseas take two forms. Some Danaan operatives performed undercover intelligence missions against international criminal networks. Others provided training or assistance to local law enforcement where a nation was not fully capable of handling its own crime problems.

The International Law Department, in its intelligence and enforcement capacity, primarily focuses on three types of international criminal activity: Trafficking in persons, drug smuggling, and arms trafficking. However, carrying out these duties effectively often leads to infiltration of and correspondingly enforcement activity against the more generalized activities of many international organized crime syndicates. Terrorism is handled instead by the Ministry for Intelligence.

Overall mission

The mission of the International Law Department is to protect the Resurgent Dream from international criminal threats and to provide good faith assistance to other nations in maintaining the rule of law internationally and bringing criminals to justice. The Resolution on the Cabinet of 2006 authorized the Minister for Justice to "appoint officers to fulfill the treaty obligations and exercise the treaty rights of the Resurgent Dream with regard to extradition, cooperate in good faith with foreign powers in combatting international criminal activities, and to provide intelligence to domestic and some foreign law enforcement agencies regarding international criminal organizations." The Resolution elsewhere deals with the authority of such officers more precisely and the International Law Department is also mentioned directly or indirectly in a number of other Acts and Resolutions.

In most cases, the International Law Department may not act upon the intelligence it obtains on its own initiative. Domestically, it must usually get the permission of a judge to proceed with arrests. Abroad, it must usually turn such intelligence over to local law enforcement who then usually carry out all enforcement actions without further ILD assistance.

Currently, the ILD's top priorities are to:

• Eliminate the activities of international criminal networks in the Resurgent Dream with a focus on trafficking in persons, drugs, and guns
• Gather intelligence on international criminal networks for domestic and foreign law enforcement use with a focus on trafficking in persons, drugs, and guns
• Arrange for the extradition of persons wanted in the Resurgent Dream from foreign nations
• Capture persons wanted for extradition from the Resurgent Dream to a foreign nation in accordance with law
• Provide assistance and instruction to law enforcement in developing or unstable nations
• Represent the legal interests of Danaan citizens abroad
• Coordinate general cooperation with foreign and international law enforcement bodies
• Effectively use technology to enhance the organization's efficiency

As of late 2005, the ILD's top priority is the complete elimination of trafficking in persons. This is an ambitious goal and some of the methods used, especially the controversial Operation Dinah, have been harshly criticized in the Resurgent Dream. The goals of eliminating gun and drug trafficking are also high priorities and have led to strained relationships with some nations which actively advocate drug and gun smuggling, especially Allanea.

In carrying out these specigic priorities, the ILD also places a strong priority on infiltrating general international organizaed crime families. This has led to a great deal of intelligence on many other crimes which hass been useful at home and abroad.

History

The International Law Department is the youngest full department in the Ministry for Justice. It was founded in 2005 after ordinary Danaan enforcement agents were sent on a haphazard mission to assist Pantocratoria in tracking, arresting, and prosecuting a group of religious fanatics who had been targetting Danaan tourists for murder. It was decided after this mission that the Resurgent Dream needed an organization dedicated to and trained for handling missions of that sort. Thus was born the International Law Department. Ceren Mustapha, the leading agent on the Pantocratorian mission, became the director of the organization. This made her both the youngest person ever to head a department in the Ministry and the first Turkish-Danaan to do so.

Several months after its creation, the International Law Department is believed to have, on the orders of Minister for Justice Beatrice Wake, initiated a quasi-legal international program called Operation Dinah designed to completely eliminate trafficking in persons. While this program has had many sucesses, it has also been widely criticized for secrecy and for allegedly making use of illegal or disreputable methods.

While the International Law Department has expanded greatly during its first year, gaining a presence in every Danaan embassy and nearly every consulate as well as maintaining an administrative and field presence domestically, it still remains a department of young idealists in the eyes of many older, more experienced Ministry officials.