What Isn’t Organised Crime?

The undeniable danger posed by real criminal organisations justifies offences so elastic that they fit almost any group of people, and whose invocation unlocks consequences bearing no proportion to the conduct. By punishing mere membership, these statutes create what Gerard Lynch called the crime of being a criminal. The vagueness is not a drafting failure. It is by design. A liberal criminal law – understood as one committed to constraining the state’s power to punish – cannot leave that design unanswered.