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Explore the challenges and strategies for improving international legal cooperation, including culture clash, language barriers, and the importance of comity and corruption-free systems.
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The Good Must Associate: Enhancing International Cooperation Culture Clash Breaking Down the Barriers
Language and Locality • English, Chinese or any other • Procedural familiarity • Case familiarity • Foreign law and procedure • Foreign investigation • Foreign remedies
Law • Common versus Civil Law Systems • Police / Prosecutorial Function • Administrative cf. Judicial Powers • Modes of investigation • Admissibility and forms of evidence
Perceptions • A process of obtaining awareness and understanding of the environment • False perceptions • The “you don’t know unless you try” principle • Changing perceptions by casework • Reaching agreement
Thresholds • High legal thresholds • High evidentiary thresholds • High formal thresholds • Maintaining common thresholds e.g. the need for dual criminality? • The delay threshold
Resources • Capacities and capabilities • Training • Political will • Active cf. passive • Developing trust • Acceptance and denial of responsibility • Internal struggles
LegalFramework • Treaties and Agreements • Domestic law • Implementation • Dealing with challenges • Keeping up to date
Central Authorities • No diplomatic channels • Nopost box • Lawyers “with cultural awareness” • Lawyers “adding value” • Lawyers “taking charge”
Consultation • On a fixed basis bilaterally • On a case by case basis • Transparency • Sincerity • Resolving obstacles “by looking at both sides and finding common ground” • Moving on
Comity • Due recognition of foreign law and procedures • Due recognition of foreign orders • Assumption of good faith and fairness of foreign laws and procedures • Judicial “openness” • Striking the right balance
TheCorruptionVirus • Staying healthy in an unhealthy environment • A new organ in a diseased body • Systemic corruption infects all • Systemic corruption blocks successful international legal cooperation • A vicious cycle of war by powerful elites
Thank You Wayne Walsh Deputy Law Officer (Mutual Legal Assistance) International Law Division Department of Justice Hong Kong SAR