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Counterfeit goods fraud is stated to be one of the fastest growing businesses in the world. Academic work examining the flows of counterfeit goods is beginning to build momentum. However, work analysing the financial mechanisms that enable the trade has been less forthcoming. This is despite the fact that over the last two decades official and media discourses have paid increasing attention to 'organised crime' finances in general. Based on an exploratory study that brought together academic researchers and law enforcement practitioners from the UK's National Trading Standards, the aim of the current article is to offer an account of the financial management in the counterfeit goods trade. Focusing on tangible goods, the article addresses the ways in which capital is secured to allow counterfeiting businesses to be initiated and sustained, how entrepreneurs and customers settle payments, and how profits from the business are spent and invested. The study covers the UK in the broader context of what is a distinctly transnational trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article pays attention to privacy issues in policing activities. It begins with two privacy related incidents involving the police - one in China and the other in the UK. It then compares different social and legal contexts in the two systems in order to explain the differences as regards privacy concerns in policing. It focuses on the underlying historical, socio-cultural and ideological factors and legal settings. It argues that there is no universal norm of privacy and privacy must be examined in particular cultural and legal settings. Both China and the UK recognize legal protection of privacy, but the law in neither system is complete. Both jurisdictions recognize the balance between privacy interests and other equally important social interests and rights, but what constitutes the right balance is constructed differently, and neither system is perfect in striking that balance. Finally, it advocates the importance of comparative socio-legal research between different cultural and legal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]