A mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) is an
agreement Agreement may refer to:
Agreements between people and organizations
* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law
* Trade agreement, between countries
* Consensus, a decision-making process
* Contract, enforceable in a court of law
** Meeting o ...
between two or more
countries for the purpose of gathering and exchanging
information
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...
in an effort to enforce
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...
or
criminal laws. A mutual legal assistance request is commonly used to formally interrogate a suspect in a criminal case, when the suspect resides in a foreign country.
Synopsis
Modern states have developed mechanisms for requesting and obtaining evidence for criminal investigations and prosecutions. When evidence or other forms of legal assistance, such as witness statements or the service of documents, are needed from a foreign sovereign, states may attempt to cooperate informally through their respective police agencies or, alternatively, resort to what is typically referred to as requests for “mutual legal assistance."
The practice of mutual legal assistance developed from the
comity
In law, comity is "a practice among different political entities (as countries, states, or courts of different jurisdictions)" involving the " mutual recognition of legislative, executive, and judicial acts."
Etymology
Comity derives from the La ...
-based system of
letters rogatory {{Short description, Formal request by a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance
Letters rogatory or letters of request are a formal request from a court to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance. The most common remedies soug ...
, though it is now far more common for states to make mutual legal assistance requests directly to the designated
Central Authority
A Central Authority is an agency or organization that is designated to play a key facilitating role in the implementation and operation of an international treaty in public and private international law.
Prior to the Hague Evidence Convention
...
within each state. In contemporary practice, such requests may still be made on the basis of reciprocity but may also be made pursuant to bilateral and multilateral treaties that obligate countries to provide assistance.
This assistance may take the form of examining and identifying people, places and things, custodial transfers, and providing assistance with the immobilization of the instruments of criminal activity. With regards to the latter, MLATs between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Caribbean nations do not cover U.S.
tax evasion
Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...
, and are therefore ineffective when applied to Caribbean countries, which usually act as
offshore "
tax haven
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
s".
Assistance may be denied by either country (according to agreement details) for political or security reasons, or if the criminal offence in question is not equally punishable in both countries. Some treaties may encourage assistance with legal aid for nationals in other countries.
Many countries are able to provide a broad range of mutual legal assistance to other countries through their
justice ministries
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
even in the absence of a treaty, through joint investigations between law enforcement in both nations, emergency disclosure requests,
letters rogatory {{Short description, Formal request by a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance
Letters rogatory or letters of request are a formal request from a court to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance. The most common remedies soug ...
, etc. In some developing countries, however, domestic laws can actually create obstacles to effective law enforcement cooperation and mutual legal assistance.
For instance, the
Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters is a convention to facilitate the entering into bilateral tax information exchange agreements between more than 90 states parties.
Examples of multilateral MLATs
*
Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters
*
European Convention on Information on Foreign Law
The European Convention on Information on Foreign Law is a 1968 Council of Europe treaty whereby states agree to procedures for the mandatory provision of information when a state requests information on the legal system of another state.
Conten ...
*
European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters
The European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters is a 1959 Council of Europe mutual legal assistance treaty. It has been ratified by 50 states including all 46 member states of the Council of Europe.
The parties to the Convention ...
*
*
Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters
*
See also
*
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
*
Deportation
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
*
Europol
*
Extradition
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
*
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
*
Judicial assistance Judicial Assistance is the admittance and enforcement of a judicial order or request by a court from one jurisdiction to a court in another jurisdiction. Such admittance sometimes requires a treaty between the governments of the two jurisdictions. ...
References
External links
Full List of United States Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties and AgreementsMLA Treaty (full text) drafted between the U.S. and Japan in 2003
*[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121212135632/http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/3706546/10773698/FCO-Tr-MLA List of British Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (indexed by the National Archives)]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty
Mutual legal assistance treaties, MLAT