With Parliament focussed on Brexit – you may have missed the Conservative Chief Whip’s letter confirming the second reading of the Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill on Monday 3 December 2018. The Bill applies to production of stored electronic data by an overseas service provider, once an International Agreement is in place between the U.K….

In a conference room in Uganda six months ago, the EU team contemplated the next step to establish the Greater Horn of Africa Mutual Legal Assistance Network. We decided upon an ambitious strategy to have an equivalent of the European Judicial Network – with a Fiches and Contact Points. To be proactive rather than reactive….

After completing my twentieth mission to the Greater Horn of Africa for the EU Law Enforcement Project – I have learnt it can be the smallest things that have the greatest impact. Communication and trust are vital in all walks of life and especially in international judicial cooperation. You can be the best lawyer –…

The EU Regional Law Enforcement Project in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen returned to Uganda for the third round of international co-operation workshops – this time on extradition. In 2010, 74 people were killed and 71 others injured, whilst they watched the World Cup final in Kampala, in a terrorist attack by Al-Shabaab….

A minor change that begins a major development …… I was in Uganda this past week to review their Mutual Legal Assistance Fiches, Extradition Fiches, International Enquiries Manual and Extradition Guide – as part of a team of experts for the EU Law Enforcement Project in the Greater Horn of Africa. Moving forward, these tools…

Illegal Mining Ghana is a country with a bountiful supply of minerals – the mining industry of Ghana accounted for 5.7% of the country’s GDP and generated an annual revenue of US$35 billion in 2014. This extraction of minerals comes with a significant environmental impact – predominantly from illegal small-scale miners – known as ‘galamseys’….

I was honoured to present a background paper for the Commonwealth Secretariat at the First Meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Central Authorities and the Commonwealth Network of Contact Persons – held in London on 15-16 February 2018. The paper outlines recommendations to reduce Mutual Legal Assistance delays – through better use of Information Communication Technology…

For the last three days I have co-chaired a working group of Romanian, German, Belgian and Italian Prosecutors as part of a project to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Romanian DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism). The focus has been judicial cooperation in the EU and the development of a practical Handbook…