Mutual legal assistance treaty

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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."[1] The practice of mutual legal assistance developed from the comity-based system of letters rogatory, though it is now far more common for states to make mutual legal assistance requests directly to the designated central authority 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.



Many countries are able to provide a broad range of mutual legal assistance to other countries through their justice ministries even in the absence of a treaty, through joint investigations between law enforcement in both nations, emergency disclosure requests, letters rogatory, etc. In some developing countries, however, domestic laws can actually create obstacles to effective law enforcement cooperation and mutual legal assistance.[1]

Examples of multilateral MLATs[edit]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b Stigall, Dan. "Countering Convergence: "Central Authorities" and the Global Network to Combat Transnational Crime and Terrorism". 
  2. ^

External links[edit]