Civil Recovery of Criminal Property

Follow-the-money' approaches are increasingly being adopted to tackle organized crime, corruption, and terrorist activities. The rationale behind such an approach is oft stated: to show that crime does not pay, to reinforce confidence in a fair and effective criminal justice system, and to deter criminal activity. Civil Recovery of Criminal Property is an in-depth analysis of the confiscation of the proceeds of crime in the absence of criminal conviction in Ireland and England & Wales, more than two decades since the introduction of this civil/criminal hybrid procedure. This book considers the development of civil recovery in both jurisdictions, providing a comprehensive comparative account and critical examination of its legislative context and framework, judicial reception, and case law development. It leads the argument that civil recovery—like other civil/criminal hybrids—straddles civil and criminal procedure in a manner that takes advantage of the resultant legal ambiguity, to the detriment of due process, civil liberties, and human rights.

Through interviews with practitioners professionally engaged with civil recovery proceedings, both in defence and in enforcement, King and Hendry remedy what has until now been a lack of empirical engagement with the operation of civil recovery in practice. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of civil recovery in terms of its procedural hybridity, its 'follow-the-money' approach, its questionable compliance with the requirements of due process, its property-specific character, and its supposed pragmatism in tackling the problem of serious and organized crime. Blending doctrinal, socio-legal, and theoretical perspectives, Civil Recovery of Criminal Property will appeal both to academics and practitioners engaged with civil recovery.

Colin King, Professor, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London,Jennifer Hendry, Professor of Law & Social Justice, University of Leeds

Colin King is Professor at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London and an Associate Academic Fellow at the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. His research is primarily in financial crime, including anti-money laundering, proceeds of crime, and deferred prosecution agreements.


Jennifer (Jen) Hendry is Professor of Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds, where she has been employed since 2009, and an Affiliate Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt. She is Editor-in-Chief of the German Law Journal, member of the 23ES Academic Panel, and former Vice-Chair of the UK Socio-Legal Studies Association.