Harmonizing National Standards of Sentencing and Bails through International Conventions on Terrorism and Organised Crime
Dr. Usman Hameed, PhD Law (University of Glasgow), Syeda Tooba Akhtar, LLM

Abstract
The UN sponsored international conventions on Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime oblige the states parties to implement certain rules which are meant to harmonize national standards of Sentencing and Bails. The consistency of these standards is desirable to facilitate state cooperation in law enforcement. As the crimes stated by the conventions regarding Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime transcend national frontiers, their suppression calls for state cooperation, and the same necessitates harmony in national laws. This paper looks into the question of the extent and the scope to which the rules laid down by the conventions bring about the desired harmony. It will be suggested that states parties have been authorised to modify the rules set forth by the relevant conventions in line with the entrenched principles of their domestic justice systems. Because of this, national standards are likely to remain diverse; nevertheless, this outcome underlies the very making of the conventions which defer to national legal systems in the matter of implementation.

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