Civil forfeiture proceedings
What about civil confiscation procedures?
When asked by a Bulgarian court, the CJEU found that the framework decision on the confiscation of property aims to oblige Member States to establish common minimum rules for the confiscation of instruments and proceeds related to criminal offences. criminal offenceswith a view to facilitating the mutual recognition of judicial confiscation orders adopted in the framework of criminal proceedings.
It follows that this Framework Decision does not govern the confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds ordered in the context of or following proceedings which do not involve the establishment of one or more criminal offences.
The confiscation procedure in this case is a civil procedure. It therefore coexists in domestic law with a criminal law confiscation regime. It focuses exclusively on the assets alleged to have been acquired unlawfully. And it is conducted independently of any criminal proceedings brought against the alleged offender.
Thus, the Court concludes that Union law does not preclude national legislation which provides :
-that a court may order the confiscation of illegally acquired assets
-without this procedure being conditional upon the establishment of a criminal offence or the conviction of the perpetrators of such an offence.
For the full text of the judgment, click here: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=224581&pageIndex=0&doclang=FR&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=886398
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