Healing the Faculty of Law - Upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the United Kingdom (ePub)

The Pandora papers data leak has highlighted the predatory practices of the world's political and financial elites - enriching themselves by looting the public purse, or exploiting laws which they themselves helped to establish.

About $3.6tn of the proceeds from bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion and cronyism are laundered each year, undermining the social fabric of nations across the globe. Tax avoidance, bribery, corruption, money-laundering and a lack of transparency are being increasingly exposed in the UK and the International Community.

The Panama papers, the Paradise papers, the HSBC leaks, the Jersey leaks, the FinCEN files, the Bahamas leaks and others have provided abundant evidence of dodgy financial dealings. The UK finance industry - aided by armies of accountants, lawyers and finance experts - is central to this trade, yet little has changed since those first revelations emerged.

It would also seem that the UK government has been protecting individuals, including dead ones, connected with al-Qaida, Saudi intelligence, royal families in the Middle East, smuggling, murder, financial crimes and other nefarious practices - which raises some serious concerns about the British political establishment and finance industry.

The UK remains a favourite destination for dirty money because the political and regulatory system is ineffective. An independent public inquiry into the finance industry is long overdue, but even if one were granted it would be hard to be optimistic: it seems that the UK law enforcement agencies have been captured by corporations. It should also be noted, that the Farrer & Co, an elite London firm with a long history of representing members of the royal family and aristocracy - such as the Queen - is now under a spotlight, due to the Pandora papers.

As indicated by the revelations of the Pandora papers, if unchecked, inequalities between rich and poor states will increase as poverty rises in developing countries.

This in turn will lead to a flood of economic migration from the poor to the rich states - a brain drain - causing further economic and social instability across the globe, and threatening to destroy the social fabric of our world.

Hence it is imperative that the International Community - in particular the Judicial Community - makes a greater effort to bring corrupt and criminal individuals in the finance industry to justice; so that rule of law, equity and liberty can prevail in the world.