In this section information will be given on legislation and international agreements concerning mutual legal assistance.

Legislation
Multilateral Conventions
Bilateral Treaties

The statutes mentioned are found at the address www.finlex.fi/en.

Scope

Mutual assistance encompasses production of evidence for preliminary investigation and/or court proceedings and service of documents. Traditionally, extradition, transfer of sentenced persons and execution of confiscation orders are excluded from the scope of mutual legal assistance.

The obligation of Finnish authorities to grant mutual legal assistance to foreign authorities stems from the International Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act or from an individual agreement. The Act contains only a few provisions concerning mutual legal assistance requests to a foreign country. The obligation of a foreign country to grant mutual assistance is determined in international agreements and in that particular country’s domestic legislation.

Conventions

The most important multilateral conventions are the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between the Member States of the European Union as well as the Protocol thereto concluded in 2001.

The European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters is customarily referred to as the 1959 Convention and the European Union Convention as the MLA 2000 Convention.

Both the MLA 2000 Convention and its Protocol have entered into force internationally.

Certain provisions of the MLA 2000 Convention (service of documents/production of evidence) are applied between the Member States and Norway and Iceland as well. The Protocol regulates mutual legal assistance on bank accounts and banking transactions.

An Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on extradition and mutual assistance in criminal matters was signed in 2003. The purpose of the EU-USA Agreement is to facilitate judicial cooperation between the Member States of the European Union and the United States.The Agreement calls for the Member States and the United States to update their respective bilateral treaties and arrangements to comform to the requirements laid down in the EU-USA Agreement. The implementation in Finland of the bilateral instruments between Finland and the United States is pending, the instruments having been signed on 16 December 2004.

Content

Mutual legal assistance includes among other things:

• service of documents
• taking of evidence (through coersive measures if necessary), hearing of witnesses and experts,
• prosecution of offenders at the request of a foreign country,
• information from criminal records, and
• other assistance

In Finland the Ministry of Justice functions as the Central Authority. A request may also be sent directly to a competent Finnish authority. The National Bureau of Investigation retains a major role in mutual assistance in Finland.

A request to a foreign jurisdiction shall be sent in accordance with the applicable convention or agreement, or in the absence of such, in a manner required by that jurisdiction. The 1959 Convention provides that requests concerning service of documents and/or taking of evidence be sent to the Central Authority (usually Ministry of Justice) who will then channel the request to the competent authority for execution.

Along with the entry into force of the MLA 2000 Convention service of documents by mail and direct contacts between the locally competent authorities have become prevalent.

Mutual assistance between the Nordic Countries functions traditionally through direct contacts.

Direct contacts require that the authorities know where to send the requests. A Judicial Atlas was established by the European Judicial Network to help authorities to locate their counterparts in other Member States. Use of the Judicial Atlas is password protected.

Mutual recognition of judicial decisions

The 1999 Tampere European Council submitted in its conclusions that the mutual recognition of judicial decisions be elevated to the cornerstone of the European judicial cooperation to replace the traditional mutual assistance in criminal matters.

According to the rules of the traditional mutual assistance a Requesting State sends a rogatory letter to the Requested State and asks certain measures to be taken there whereupon the Requested State decides whether or not to grant assistance. In the mutual recognition regime the authority needing judicial assistance takes the decision and sends it to an authority of another Member State for execution there. The decision shall be executed in the same manner as a corresponding domestic one.

The first European Union legislative instrument implementing the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions is the Framework Decision on Freezing of Assets and Property adopted by the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 22 July 2003.

Additional information on other decisions based on the mutual recognition of judicial decisions are available at http://www.om.fi/ 

Check also the Legal Registry Centre at http://www.oikeus.fi/oikeusrekisterikeskus/index.htm 

Updated on 15 January 2008