Mutual Judicial Assistance

Liechtenstein has been a contractual state to the European Treaty of 20.04.1959 concerning the mutual judicial assistance in criminal cases (ERHÜ) since 26.07.1970. The law governing international mutual judicial assistance in criminal cases (RHG) LGBl. 1992 No. 68, came into force on 04.06.1993.
The new Liechtenstein law governing mutual judicial assistance came into force on 6 November 2000. The jurisdictions were regulated new in this law. On the level of administrative law only one political plausibility control will now be carried out still by the Ministry of Justice, which cannot be contested. The request for mutual judicial assistance is then forwarded to the Regional Court in Vaduz which examines this both from a formal as well as material point of view and if applicable will decide to what extent judicial assistance will be provided. A legal remedy possibility exists against such decisions, as in the intrastate criminal proceedings. From the twelve instances which are possible according to the former RHG, thus only four legal remedy possibilities remain still. The new RHG is recited system-conform from the Austrian law governing extraditions and mutual judicial assistance.

The simplified execution in the field of sending objects and files through the agreement proceedings as well as the essential facilitation with regard to the requirement for the judicial order as one of the pre-requisites with requests for searches of persons or rooms, confiscation or hand-over of objects, also lead to an acceleration of the proceedings.

No judicial assistance is granted according to Art. 3 Par. 3 RHG if the object of the proceedings is an offence which appears directed at the reduction of fiscal duties or which violates regulations concerning currency, trade or economic policy measures.