Abstract

The regulation of police cooperation across national and international jurisdictional boundaries differs significantly around the world. It ranges from formal, legally binding international treaties and agreements, to informal custom applied between agencies. This article aims to explore the relevance of shared fundamental rights, and in particular fair trial rights, for the formalisation of police cooperation strategies. More broadly, it aims to address whether there is a relationship between similarities in human rights frameworks and the formalisation of transnational police regulation from a comparative legal perspective. The article addresses five distinctly different systems within which cooperation can eventuate. First, it assesses international police cooperation strategies with a view to formal regulation to show how a high (or even the highest possible) level of diversity regarding human rights regimes impacts on cross-border policing regulation. Second, the interaction between the Nordic countries, as a region with a long cross-border law enforcement history within Europe is analysed as a region comprising distinct sovereign states, but very similar human rights requirements. Third, the article addresses Greater China, which is composed of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and Mainland China. The four states, while not being sovereign nation states, have distinctly different histories, legal systems and police organisations, which presents challenges for cross-border law enforcement. Australia, the fourth system investigated, is a federal state and its states and territories are independent criminal law jurisdictions with separate police forces, making cooperation across their borders necessary. However, the cooperating states and territories abide by very similar procedural rules and human rights requirements. Australia has been chosen as an example for the impact of greatest similarity (but no uniformity) on police cooperation regulation. Lastly, the European Union (EU) is assessed as a region that has formed its own human rights framework, as well as a significant number of treaties and agreements regulating police and justice cooperation.