International Cooperation in Confiscation Matters and Dutch Legislation: Points of Attention for Effective Cooperation in the European Union

Abstract

International cooperation in confiscation cases is high on the agenda in Europe. This is evident from the flow of regulations which are related to such cooperation. Several framework decisions of the European Union, together with the revised money laundering convention of the Council of Europe, constitute a sound and well-tailored legal framework for international cooperation. Nevertheless, international cooperation in confiscation matters is a precarious matter. How many legal rules may exist, all kinds of things can go wrong in the cooperation process. A frequently heard complaint about the process of international cooperation relates to the poor framing and substantiation of mutual assistance requests. One of the causes of this bottleneck is that there is an inadequate understanding of the differences in the legal framework of the confiscation of the proceeds from crime in different countries. In this context, it is important that the meaning of legal terms which may seem unambiguous at first sight can vary in different legal systems. A substandard framing and substantiation of mutual assistance requests in turn causes mutual assistance requests to have a long, sometimes very long processing time. Good knowledge of the legal systems of the countries with whom one cooperates is therefore one of the success factors for efficient international cooperation. This paper is intended to give a description of Dutch law, in so far as this is important for international cooperation.