Macao SAR Inter-Regional Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters1

Abstract

Mutual legal assistance (hereinafter “MLA”), also usually mentioned as “judicial co-operation” or “judicial assistance”, is a matter of increasingly great relevance for the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR). Macao’s vast legal autonomy, combined with a judicial system with powers of final adjudication, requires that the Macao SAR set up mechanisms enabling autonomous MLA. As Macao’s economy becomes more and more opened to, and interlinked with, the outside, the need for a solid foundation for international and inter-regional MLA is evident. Furthermore, in the last decade Macao’s external trade has shifted from traditional markets – such as the European Union and the United States of America – towards the Chinese Mainland. It is important to bear this in mind in order to understand the priority given by the Macao SAR Government to inter-regional MLA. In this paper we will not consider the important subject of police assistance or co-operation. Rather, we shall limit ourselves to discussing the issue of the Macao’s inter-regional MLA in criminal matters, herein understood as co-operation with Mainland China and the Hong Kong SAR (given the current political constraints in regard to co-operation with Taiwan). This paper is intentionally restricted to MLA in criminal matters. The reason for this does not stem from an obstinate willingness to handle more complicated issues. MLA in civil and commercial matters, albeit important, is clearly moving