The problem of slavery and human trafficking: International law and scientific discourse

The expansion of the range of issues related to modern slavery and human trafficking is associated with the intensification of scientific research in this area, which raises the issue of classification and systematization of research in this area. The publication aims at defining the main criteria for systematizing scientific works in the field of combating slavery and human trafficking, and at classifying and analysing one of the selected segments of this body of research. In the context of analysing the process of researching a particular area of scientific interest, the main tools used are the principles of objectivity, scientificity and systematicity, while general scientific methods of cognition – deduction and retrospective, as well as special legal methods – comparative legal and legal forecasting. The analysis of the content and issues of scientific reports on research conducted in the field of combating human trafficking has shown both their high professional level and their focus on processing and summarizing factual data that are mostly not available in the format of ordinary scientific articles. It has also been established that scientific reports are mostly focused on solving practical problems, which increases the benefit of using the formulated conclusions not only in scientific, but also in law enforcement and social work. The practical value of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, an attempt was made to conduct a systematic analysis of a selected segment of works on the problem of modern slavery and human trafficking