This article builds on a number of previous global and regional initiatives (Dandurand, 2007). It calls upon States parties to afford one another the widest measure of mutual legal assistance in investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings. The offences for which assistance should be provided include cross-border «serious crime» involving an organised criminal organisation, offences defined in the Organised Crime Convention itself (participation in an organised criminal organisation, money laundering, corruption and obstruction of justice) and offences referred to in the protocols to that Convention to which States are parties. Such assistance may take the form of investigations and identification of persons, places and things in police custody and assistance in the immobilization of the instruments of criminal activity. With respect to the latter, the mutual legal assistance treaties between the United States and Caribbean countries do not cover the United States. Tax evasion and are therefore ineffective when applied to Caribbean countries, which normally operate as offshore «tax havens». (i) Any other type of assistance that is not contrary to the domestic law of the requested State Party. Mutual legal assistance agreements increasingly require States parties to designate a central authority (usually the Ministry of Justice) to which requests can be addressed, thus providing an alternative to diplomatic channels. The judicial authorities of the requesting State may then communicate directly with the central authority. Today, even more direct channels are increasingly used, as an official of the requesting State may address the request directly to the competent official of the other State.

This trend shows the importance of a national central authority as a prerequisite for more effective mutual legal assistance. The Organized Crime Convention makes its designation a mandatory condition for the prompt and orderly execution or transmission of requests, without, however, affecting the right of States parties to use traditional diplomatic channels (Article 18, paragraph 13). In addition, it is equally important to provide central authorities with practitioners who have received legal training and have developed institutional expertise and continuity in relevant practice, as well as to ensure the dissemination of up-to-date information for them. 2. Mutual legal assistance shall be provided to the maximum extent possible in accordance with the relevant laws, treaties, conventions and arrangements of the requested State Party with respect to investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings relating to offences for which a legal person may be held responsible in accordance with article 10 in the requesting State Party. 1. States Parties shall afford one another the widest measure of mutual assistance in investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings in respect of the offences set forth in article 3 and shall afford one another similar assistance if the requesting State Party has reasonable grounds to believe that the offence set forth in article 3 (a) or (b), paragraph 1 (a) or (b), is of a transboundary nature; including whether the victims, witnesses, proceeds, instrumentalities or evidence of such offences are located in the requested State Party and that the offence involves an organized criminal organization. Mutual legal assistance in criminal matters is a process by which States solicit and assist other States in serving judicial documents and gathering evidence in criminal cases. In view of the wide and growing range of international instruments that each State party needs to afford one another the widest possible mutual legal assistance and to designate a central authority for this purpose, it is also important that States ensure that their central authorities constitute a single entity in order to facilitate greater consistency in mutual legal assistance with regard to different types of offences and to reduce the possibility of mutual legal assistance.

fragmentation of mutual legal assistance efforts and reduce the possibility of fragmentation of mutual legal assistance efforts. This is the first time we have had a debate on this subject. Modern states have developed mechanisms to request and obtain evidence for criminal investigations and prosecutions. When evidence or other forms of mutual legal assistance, such as testimony or service of documents, are required by a foreign sovereign, States may seek to cooperate informally through their respective law enforcement agencies or resort to what are generally referred to as «letters rogatory». [1] The practice of mutual legal assistance has evolved from the Committee-based system of letters rogatory, although it is now much more common for States to address letters rogatory directly to the designated Central Authority in each State. In current practice, such requests can still be made on the basis of reciprocity, but can also be made on the basis of bilateral and multilateral treaties that require countries to provide assistance. The Honiara Declaration «calls for a series of procedural and substantive measures to promote law enforcement cooperation, mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, control of money laundering, confiscation of assets and banking regulation, extradition, the fight against drug-related offences, the fight against environmental crimes, the fight against terrorism, maritime surveillance, cooperation in tax matters and assistance in criminal matters. Ensure prison administration and the treatment of indigenous problems. Other areas identified by the Forum after Honiara include human trafficking, regional security, proliferation of small arms, identity fraud and corruption. [Boister, Neil (2004).

Transnational crime in the Pacific. University of the South Pacific (USP).] The relationship between bilateral and multilateral treaties on mutual legal assistance is dealt with in the Organized Crime Convention. The main points are summarised below: 3. Mutual legal assistance to be granted under this Article may be requested for the following purposes: A Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (SAMT) is an agreement between two or more countries for the purpose of collecting and exchanging information for the enforcement of public or criminal laws. A request for mutual legal assistance is often used to formally question a suspect in criminal proceedings if the suspect resides in a foreign country. Assistance may be refused by both countries (depending on the details of the agreement) for political or security reasons, or if the offence in question is not punishable in the same way in both countries. Some agreements may encourage legal assistance to nationals of other countries. These examples of technical assistance instruments should be used by States to promote more effective cooperation in criminal matters with cross-border implications. As provided for in the Organized Crime Convention, mutual legal assistance may be requested for: The Convention on the Suppression of Organized Crime also obliges States parties to provide mutual legal assistance to the maximum extent possible. UNODC has developed tools to facilitate international cooperation and address the challenges faced by transnational organized criminal groups.

The UNODC Model Treaty on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters contains state-of-the-art provisions on the basis of which States can develop their own bilateral agreements (UNODC, 1998). To facilitate the development of national legislation, UNODC has developed the Model Law on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (UNODC, 2007). The Model Law contains provisions to assist States in providing more effective assistance in criminal matters with cross-border implications. Many countries are able to provide a wide range of legal assistance to other countries through their ministries of justice, even in the absence of a treaty, through joint investigations between the law enforcement agencies of the two countries, emergency requests, requests for mutual legal assistance, etc. However, in some developing countries, national laws may indeed create obstacles to effective law enforcement cooperation and mutual legal assistance. [1] The traditional instrument of mutual legal assistance is a request for mutual legal assistance – a formal request from the judicial authority of one State to a judicial authority of another State, when the requested judicial authority is requested to perform one or more specific acts, usually the gathering of evidence and the questioning of witnesses, on behalf of the requesting judicial authority. These requests are usually transmitted through diplomatic channels. Once the prosecutor has prepared an application, it is certified by the competent national court of the requesting State and then handed over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that State to the embassy of the requested State (Funk, 2014; Efrat and Newman, 2017).