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Asset Recovery Handbook : A Guide
 for PractitionersThe handbook is organized into nine
 chapters, a glossary, and ten appendixes of additional
 resources. Chapter one provides a general overview of the
 asset recovery process and legal avenues for recovery, along
 with practical case examples. Chapter two presents a host of
 strategic considerations for developing and managing an
 asset recovery case, including gathering initial sources of
 facts and information, assembling a team, and establishing a
 relationship with foreign counterparts for international
 cooperation. Chapter three introduces the techniques that
 practitioners may use to trace assets and analyze financial
 data, as well as to secure reliable and admissible evidence
 for asset confiscation cases. The provisional measures and
 planning necessary to secure the assets prior to
 confiscation are discussed in chapter four; and chapter five
 introduces some of the management issues that practitioners
 will need to consider during this phase. Confiscation
 systems are the focus of chapter six, including a review of
 the different systems and how they operate and the
 procedural enhancements that are available in some
 jurisdictions. On the issue of international cooperation,
 chapter seven reviews the various methods available,
 including informal assistance and mutual legal assistance
 requests; and guides practitioners through the entire
 process. Finally, chapters eight and nine discuss two
 additional avenues for asset recovery-respectively, civil
 proceedings and domestic confiscation proceedings undertaken
 in foreign jurisdictions.
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Public Wrongs, Private Actions : Civil Lawsuits to Recover Stolen AssetsCorruption and thefts of public assets harm a diffuse set of victims, weakens confidence in public institutions, damages the private investment climate, and threatens the foundations of the society as a whole. In developing countries with scarce public resources, the cost of corruption is an impediment to development: developing countries lose between US$20 to US$40 billion each year through bribery, misappropriation of funds, and other corrupt practices. Corruption is by no means a "victimless crime." This study aims to explore the standing of States and Government entities as victims and the possible recourse to private actions to redress public wrongs. States and Government entities may act as private litigants and bring civil suits to recover assets lost to corruption. The goal of this work is to promote knowledge and understanding as well as to increase the use of civil remedies and private lawsuits to recover stolen assets in the context of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) offences. The UNCAC, the global standard for the fight against corruption, does not contain a legal definition of corruption itself but lists an array of offences, including public and private sector bribery and the embezzlement of public and private sector funds. The study will mainly focus on these two types of corruption, namely bribery and embezzlement of funds. This study is not intended in any way to minimize the importance of criminal proceedings and confiscation in addressing acts of corruption. Rather, it will show that civil law remedies can effectively complement criminal penalties by attacking the economic base of corrupt activities both in the public and the private sectors. In fact, given the magnitude of the challenges, all avenues of asset recovery, be they criminal or civil, should be explored simultaneously in order to tackle corruption from each and every angle and achieve the goals of deterrence and enforcement. Hence, while criminal law expresses society's disapproval of the corrupt acts and aims at dissuasion, punishment, and confiscation of illicit proceeds, civil law focuses on victims' interests and aims at compensation and restitution. These procedures may occur sometimes in parallel, sometimes sequentially. An effective response to corruption very often requires concomitant use of both criminal and civil law remedies to achieve the desired result.
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Pakistan - Strengthening the Insolvency Regime : Non-Lending Technical Assistance Final ReportThe importance of a modern, binding and
 effective insolvency regime is undeniable. Nearly 90
 countries around the world have reformed their bankruptcy
 codes since Second World War, and over half of them have
 done so during the last decade. One of the key aspects in
 the reform process is the delicate balance addressed by a
 modern insolvency system which encourages the organization
 of viable firms and liquidates unviable firms. The financial
 and macroeconomic crises, as recently experienced in
 Pakistan, provide an opportunity for bankruptcy reform, as
 the potential employment impact often places the issue of
 insolvent companies high on the policy agenda. The three
 fundamental goals of any insolvency law are: 1)
 transparency, including a system for publicizing and
 indexing judgments, an accessible method for registering
 securing interest and an effective notice of insolvency
 proceedings, 2) predictability - in terms of being fair,
 simple and clear, which if not achieved ends up costing more
 as financial institutions compensate the uncertainty with
 additional credit costs; and 3) efficiency, which
 conceptually is clear but empirically is difficult to measure.