Collaboration with Justice in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Canada

Abstract

One of the more far-reaching investigative tools in criminal cases is the instrument of collaboration with justice, the measure by which undertakings are made to otherwise unwilling ‘offender witnesses’, i.e. witnesses who themselves are suspected or who have been found guilty of committing a criminal offence, in order to persuade them to cooperate with the authorities, by giving (incriminating) evidence in the prosecution of others. This study aims to gain insight into the legal avenues available for making undertakings to witnesses in exchange for their evidence in several countries – the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Canada –, ultimately with a view to drawing lessons from the comparative exercise for the Netherlands in particular. The main questions that have been answered in this study are as follows:How is the instrument of collaboration with justice (hereafter: ‘the instrument’) regulated in each of the countries under examination?How is the instrument applied in practice in each of the countries under examination, and what are the experiences and results achieved in this regard?How does the relevant law and practice in Germany, Italy and Canada compare to that in the Netherlands?