Over the last 120 years, six international instruments have been created
for the specific purpose of addressing human trafficking. Although these international
instruments generally recognize the criminality of trafficking in persons, they
consistently failed to explicitly define ‘human trafficking’ as a criminal offense until
2000. Prior to the turn of this century, how can human trafficking as codified under
international law be understood? An in-depth legal analysis of these formative
international instruments, in combination with their corresponding preparatory
documentation, has largely escaped academic scrutiny. This article therefore
examines the twentieth century trafficking conventions to fill this gap. It proceeds
by identifying and isolating the legal definition of ‘human trafficking’ in each of
these early international conventions, extracting the elements contained within, and
contextualizing the substance from a criminal justice perspective. This analysis
reveals the extent to which the legal construction of ‘human trafficking’ as a crime
of international concern has evolved over time and what lessons the Palermo Protocol
has or can learn from prior instruments. Reviewing the breadth of international
law as it pertains to the traffic of human beings from its legal inception onward
enables a greater understanding of this phenomenon.

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EB00000003841K			Available

• Human Trafficking in International Law Before the Palermo Protocol