Reporting Obligations & Tipping Off: Has The Pendulum Swung Too Far?
The reporting obligation underpinning the regulatory rampart raised in the global battle against money laundering and cross border fraud has come under recent scrutiny in the United Kingdom and in Canada. Contrasting approaches and decisions from these jurisdictions, should give practitioners in these Islands plenty of food for thought. In the rush to legislate against what is properly perceived as a destabilising threat to the proper functioning of governments and their economies, long protected and essential democratic principles namely, the necessity of an independent legal profession and of the sanctity of legal professional privilege, appear to have been sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Perhaps, in the wake of developments, particularly in Canada, the time has come for a reappraisal by the legal profession of the legislative straightjacket imposed by the Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Law (2001 Revision)
