Extended Asset Recovery in Criminal Law
This research project deals with extended forms of asset recovery, in Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish law. Asset recovery refers to the seizure of property, without compensation, related to criminal activity. The purpose is to analyse various forms of extended asset recovery in criminal law, such as extended criminal confiscation and civil asset recovery, against the basic principles of criminal law and criminal procedural law.
Main content
Project period: 1.1.2012 - 31.12.2014
Project leader: Johan Boucht, LL.D.
Project financing: This project is financed mainly by the Norwegian Research Council (FRISAM), and partly the project "The Functionality of the Criminal Justice System" at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen.
One of the main (principled) concerns with extended confiscation is the risk of innocent property being targeted due to, for example, insufficient statutory control mechanisms. My ambition is therefore to suggest a normative theoretical framework according to which this risk can be limited as well as the legitimacy of extended confiscation schemes can be assessed. The framework is based on three parameters: efficiency, legal certainty and fairness based on proportionality. These parameters can be concretised by three sub-questions: what is the appropriate target area of extended confiscation, what procedural safeguards are available and how are fairness issues addressed? Having done this, I will analyse existing legislation in Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish law and, finally, propose a de lege ferenda model that is capable of balancing the various interests involved.
Publications within the project:
- "Extended Confiscation and the Proposed Directive on Freezing and Confiscation of Criminal Proceeds in the EU - on Striking a Balance Between Efficiency, Fairness and Legal Certainty" (under review for publication in European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 2013)
- "Utvidgat förverkande enligt strl. § 34a - ny modell för ökad funktionalitet eller obefogat avsteg från hävdvunna rättssäkerhetskrav?", Tidsskrift for Strafferett (4/2012), s. 382-423
- "Civil Asset Forfeiture and the Presumption of Innocence - Particularly in the Light of Art. 6(2) ECHR", in Jon Petter Rui - Ulrich Sieber (ed.): Non-Conviction Based Confiscation in the EU - Human rights, Harmonisation, Effective Implementation and International Cooperation (OUP 2013; forthcoming), 40 pp.
