The assets recovery, the mutual recognition scheme and the requests for judicial cooperation related to non-conviction based forfeiture in Portugal

Abstract

The present work seeks to answer the following question: in Portugal, does the mutual recognition regime cover a request for judicial cooperation, from another Member State of the European Union, based on non-conviction based confiscation? After a brief analysis of the instruments of forfeiture (criminal) adopted by Portugal (classic forfeiture and extended forfeiture), non-conviction based forms of forfeiture (of a civil nature and of criminal nature) and models of judicial cooperation in Europe, concludes that the mutual recognition model nowadays covers both the classic and extended forfeiture, but not any of the non-conviction-based forms of forfeiture - civil or in criminal prosecution. Thus, in the end, we conclude that the question that motivated the present work should be answered negatively.