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The UK Government website covers Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) requests that it receives from outside of the UK.

I was hoping someone could clarify the De Minimis part.

Question 1:

Focusing on England and Wales, there is a De Minimis period of 10 years. This means, any MLAT requests received to investigate crimes that happened over a decade ago may be rejected, due to the significant lapse in time since the offence was committed.

Since MLAT requests are bilateral (applying to both the requested and requesting country), would the countries that England has MLAT agreements with also enforce a De Minimis period?

My logic is you treat others as you want to be treated yourself, but this is Law so I would rather ask! It would make sense to share a common set of rules, especially for bilateral agreements.

Question 2:

Further down the page, it states that the De Minimis does not apply to European Union Member States.

Please note that the de minimis policy does not apply to requests made by European Union Member States under the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters 1959 and the two additional protocols, as supplemented by the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Since the Brexit vote, I was wondering whether the information in the paragraph above, about the De Minimis period not applying to EU member states, was still correct?

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  • Are you asking if the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters 1959, etc. still apply to the UK, post-Brexit?
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Jan 23 at 21:05
  • @ohwilleke 1) Currently (2024) does the De Minimis policy apply to EU countries? I want to know whether Brexit changed anything.
    – user5623335
    Commented Jan 25 at 5:42
  • @ohwilleke 2) I am before that asking a different question - since the UK has a De Minimis policy, could other countries we have MLAT agreements with also enforce the same 10 year duration? I think this might be the case, treat others as you would like to be treated yourself, and I think the whole point of a bilateral agreement like an MLAT is that it is... bilateral (same rules for both requesting and receiving country, surely?).
    – user5623335
    Commented Jan 25 at 5:42
  • @ohwilleke I edited the question, let me know if it is still not clear and I will edit again?
    – user5623335
    Commented Jan 26 at 3:26

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