On 13th September, law firm Corker Bining published a briefing on the meaning of the recent High Court decision that the statute involved extends extraterritoriality to foreign companies in respect of documents held outside the jurisdiction when there is a sufficient connection between the company and the jurisdiction. The article says that, at first blush, the judgment is the product of common sense, but certain aspects of the judgment are troubling. That said, the article says that the judgment will embolden other agencies which have similar compulsory document production powers, such as the FCA, NCA and police; they too will see little point in drafting cumbersome mutual legal assistance requests and then waiting months for a response. Indeed, the judgment may well signal the slow demise of mutual legal assistance in criminal investigations. The judgment is consistent with a new bill currently making its way through Parliament for an Overseas Production Order, which would compel overseas companies to produce electronic data. The OPO would be served directly on the foreign company that holds the data, without relying on the applicable mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT).
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