Katarzyna (Kasia) McNaughton is a Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a recipient of a prestigious SSHRC Postdoctoral Award Fellowship. She received her PhD in Law from Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) in 2022. Her doctoral dissertation, supervised by the late Professor Arthur Cockfield, examined the role of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) within the international anti–money laundering (AML) regime and public policy. The thesis offered a comparative analysis of FIU models across ten Western and post-Soviet jurisdictions and provided a critical assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding FIUs and the international architecture for combating money laundering.

Katarzyna holds a Law degree from the University of Gdansk (Poland), a master’s degree in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine, and an LL.M. from Chapman University Fowler School of Law (Orange, California). She has substantial experience teaching undergraduate students in Poland, Canada, and the United States.

Research interests

My current research examines the effects of Russian economic sanctions on the transnational governance of illicit economies, with particular attention to how countries’ enforcement and intelligence agencies, legislative frameworks, and institutional architectures adapt to the evolving dynamics of illicit financial flows. More broadly, my work explores how sanctions reshape regulatory co-operation, enforcement strategies, and financial intelligence practices across jurisdictions, especially in Europe and post-Soviet Eurasia.

Latest publications

1.FROM POST-SOVIET LEGACY TO PRESENT ACCOUNTABILITY: THE EMERGENCE OF A DOCTRINAL FRAMEWORK IN EUROPEAN UNION (EU) SANCTIONS LAW AGAINST RUSSIA, Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies

Accepted for publication, 16 Feb.2026

2. The Dutch Perspective on the Enforcement of the EU Sanctions Against Russia: Legal Challenges, Case Law, and Institutional Practice Russian Sanctions Enforcement.

The Eastern European Journal of Transnational Relations, Special Issue: Sanctions: Practical Legal Perspectives, Volume 9, Number 3, December 2025.

https://eejtr.uwb.edu.pl/issue/view/155

3.McNaughton, K. Lukowski M. (2025), How Frontline States Tackle Sanctions Against Russia: Implementation and Enforcement Dynamics in Poland and the Baltics. Published in Journal of Economic Criminology. Volume 8, June 2025, 100130.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100130

4.McNaughton, K (2024), The Tale of the Baltics: Experiences, Challenges, and the Lessons from Reforming their National Intelligence Units (FIUs).

Journal of Economic Criminology, Vol. 5, September 2024.

(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100080)

5.McNaughton, K (2023), The Variability and Clustering of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs)-A Comparative Analysis of National Models of FIUs in Selected Western and Eastern (post-Soviet) Countries.

Journal of Economic Criminology, Volume 2, December 2023. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconc.2023.100036)

6.McNaughton, K (2023), (book chapter) “The powers, operation and limits of FINTRAC” in “Canada: The State of the Federation 2022. Financial Crime in Canada”, Edited by Christian Leuprecht, Jamie Ferrill, McGill Queen’s - University Press, 2022.

(https://www.mqup.ca/canada--the-state-of-the-federation-2022-products-9781553394648.php?page_id=106498&)

7.McNaughton, K (2019,) “The Problem of Reprivatization of Nationalized Property in Poland”, Loyola International and Comparative Law Review, 269, Vol.41. (https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ilr/vol41/iss3/8)