Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties: The Good and the Bad
Mutual treaties are a great asset to many countries. They aid in convicting criminals, transporting victims of custodial violations and releasing information. They can also be a nightmare if one side or the other does not wish to comply with a request that is in the treaty.
Mutual legal assistance treaties can be controversial at times and create a great deal of friction among otherwise allied countries. The treaties are basically agreements between two countries to help one another in sharing and gathering relevant information pertaining to a certain issue. However, the issue at hand must be clearly defined in the agreement or a country the information is being requested from can reply with a denial.
The most familiar instances of when we have seen mutual legal assistance treaties at work are with custody issues that are pasted all over the news or criminals trying to seek refuge in countries other than their own after committing a criminal offense and fleeing. The way the treaties work, is the country with the request to provide information must turn over the requested documents, people or information per the agreement. If they fail to do so, then they are in violation of the treaty which does not bode well for peace between the countries. There are a couple of exceptions to those rules. The country does not have to comply with the country requesting the information of persons involved if they have potential security threats over the issue or political issues. They may in some instances also refuse the request if the request is considered frivolous or if the crime is not an equally punishable offense in both countries.
The treaties are commonly used every day all around the world. The United States has cracked down heavily on those trying to avoid paying their taxes. With most of the countries around the globe, the U.S. has mutual legal assistance treaties with tax evasion listed as a part of the agreement. However, even though they have mutual treaties with Caribbean nations, tax evasion is not part of the agreement with those nations. Since that is the case, many wealthier individuals from the United States use Caribbean banks to safeguard their money and hide it from the United States government.
Mutual legal assistance treaties are for the good of the people of all nations, even though it may not seem like it at times. While we sometimes complain about things happening in the world where treaties are involved, we are sure glad they are in place when we need help. If someone’s child is abducted and taken to another country, we would hope that the country had a treaty with the U.S. to ensure the safe return of the child. The same can be said in the instance of someone committing a violent crime in the United States and then fleeing to a foreign country. We would want the filing for extradition to be honored so that the criminal can be brought back to face charges and have their day in court.
Mutual legal assistance treaties were created to protect people. If a bad situation happens to someone and it requires the enforcement and compliance of a treaty to fix the problem, then that person should be thanking their lucky stars that these treaties are in place for those specific circumstances.
Read more about Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties and Tax Information Exchange Agreements.
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