Legal Basis for Civil Forfeiture of Illegal and Unjustified Assets: Georgia's Experience and Prospects for its Implementation in Ukraine

  • Andrii VOZNIUK Doctor of Law, Professor, Head of the Research Laboratory on Crime Prevention at the Educational and Scientific Institute of Police Activities of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3352-5626
  • Yuliia BOIKO-BUZYL Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Head of the Research Laboratory on Law Enforcement Management at the Educational and Scientific Institute of Postgraduate Education of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1715-4327
  • Ihor BUDIK PhD in Law, Head of Department of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6319-8590
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33270/05267101.1

Abstract

Abstract. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal foundations of civil confiscation of illegal and unjustified assets, using the legislation of Georgia as a case study, and assesses the prospects for implementing certain elements of this model in Ukrainian law. Keywords: illicit enrichment; corruption; organized crime; «thief in law»; narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; human trafficking; money laundering; terrorist financing; criminal proceedings; profit-motivated crime; criminal offense; confiscation; proof.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bikelis, S. (2020a). Civil confiscation as a response to the necessity to tackle the proceeds of crime: A comparative view. Baltic Journal of Law & Politics, 13(2), 148-172. DOI: 10.2478/bjlp-2020-0010

Bikelis, S. (2020b). Modeling the patterns of civil confiscation: Balancing effectiveness, proportionality and the right to be presumed innocent. Baltic Journal of Law & Politics, 13(2), 24-48. DOI: 10.2478/bjlp-2020-0010

Bikelis, S. (2021). Chasing criminal wealth: Broken expectations for the criminalization of illicit enrichment in Lithuania. Journal of Money Laundering Control, 25(1), 95-108. DOI: 10.1108/JMLC-12-2020-0135

Bikelis, S. (2022). Label v. Content: The problem of non-recognition of civil confiscation orders in Europe. Baltic Journal of Law & Politics, 15(1), 54-70. DOI: 10.2478/bjlp-2022-0003

Bikelis, S. (2025). Confiscation beyond the all-crime approach and the proportionality principle: A case of the Lithuanian illicit enrichment offence concept. Laws, 14(1). DOI: 10.3390/laws14010001

Bikelis, S., Pranka, D., & Dainauskaitė, G. (2024). Penal vs. confiscation-only approaches in money laundering control. Baltic Journal of Law & Politics, 17(2), 188-206. DOI: 10.2478/bjlp-2024-00021

Boucht, J. (2019). Asset confiscation in Europe – past, present, and future challenges. Journal of Financial Crime, 26(2), 526–548. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-04-2018-0043

Broad, R., Lord, N., & Duncan, S. (2022). Asset seizure and confiscation in cases of modern slavery and human trafficking: A systematic review of the literature. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 22(4), 581-600. DOI: 10.1177/1748895820981613

Buisman, S.S. (2022). The future of EU substantive criminal law towards a uniform set of criminalisation principles at the EU level. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 30(2), 161-187. DOI: 10.1163/15718174-bja10032

Cherniavskyi, S., & Vozniuk, A. (2019). Foreign experience of legal counteraction to illegal enrichment: Conceptual foundations. Law Journal of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, 9(1), 79-89. DOI: 10.33270/04201901.8

Dragusha, F. (2021). The confiscation system of unjustified wealth in the Republic of Kosovo and its compatibility with European law. Master's thesis. Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Retrieved from https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstreams/9f528af8-af2b-4c6f-8b01-f91a38f0eb50/download

EU serious and organised crime threat assessment (SOCTA). (2021). Europol. Retrieved from https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/main-reports/eu-socta-2021

Global report on trafficking in persons 2022. (2022). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/glotip.html

Hamin, Z., Abdul Hakim, M.M., Kamaruddin, S., & Wan Rosli, W.R. (2025). The legal framework of asset forfeiture for money laundering in the United Kingdom and Malaysia. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 9(2), 4404-4414. DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS.2025.9020345

Hryniewicz-Lach, E. (2024). Improving asset confiscation: In the quest for effective and just solutions. ERA Forum, 25, 231-247. DOI: 10.1007/s12027-024-00806-8

Hryniewicz-Lach, E. (2025). Extended confiscation and legal principles of EU law. In Extended confiscation of illicit assets and the criminal law (pp. 184–196). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003536321-19

Khutor, T. (2021). Recovery of assets to state revenue following their recognition as unjustified: A hidden form of punishment? NaUKMA Research Papers. Law, 7, 61-70. DOI: 10.18523/2617-2607.2021.7.61-70

Kolotylo, O.O. (2019). Confiscation outside criminal prosecution (civil confiscation): The international legal aspect. Scientific Notes of the Institute of Legislation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 3, 81-88. DOI: 10.32886/instzak.2019.03.08

Körtl, C., & Chbib, I. (2024). Illicit enrichment in Germany: An evaluation of the reformed asset recovery regime's ability to confiscate proceeds of crime. International Review of Law and Economics, 80. DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2024.106230

Kovachev, P.I. (2025). The institution of civil confiscation in the light of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the national context. Scientific Bulletin of Uzhhorod National University. Law Series, 90(2), 90–97. DOI: 10.24144/2307-3322.2025.90.2.12

Kramer, J.-A., Blokland, A.A.J., Kleemans, E.R., & Soudijn, M.R.J. (2024). Money laundering as a service: Investigating business-like behavior in money laundering networks in the Netherlands. Trends in Organized Crime, 27, 314–341. DOI: 10.1007/s12117-022-09475-w

Kupatadze, A. (2025). Den of thieves: Mapping organized crime in the South Caucasus. Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Retrieved from https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Alexander-Kupatadze-Den-of-thieves-Mapping-organized-crime-in-the-South-Caucasus-GI-TOC-August-2025-1.pdf

Laghidze, E. (2023). Seizure and confiscation as an effective means of combating transnational organized crime. Law and World, 9(25), 146-155. DOI: 10.36475/9.1.15

Levi, M., & Reuter, P. (2006). Money laundering. Crime and Justice, 34, 289-375. DOI: 10.1086/501508

Martinaitytė, L. (2021). Civil asset confiscation law: New criminal policy or restrictions outbounding criminal procedure? In The significance of EU criminal law in the 21st century: The need for further harmonisation or new criminal policy? (pp. 74-79). DOI: 10.15388/seucl.2021.11

Meyer, F. (2020). Recognizing the unknown. European Criminal Law Review, 10(2), 140-170. DOI: 10.5771/2193-5505-2020-2-140

Moiseienko, A. (2022). The limitations of unexplained wealth orders. Criminal Law Review, 3, 230-241. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4708025

Savona, E.U., & Anastasio, M. (2025). EU asset recovery system failure: An incentive for the internationalisation of organised crime? International Criminology, 5, 589-604. DOI: 10.1007/s43576-025-00193-1

Silva, S.O. (2022). Regulation (EU) 2018/1805 on the mutual recognition of freezing and confiscation orders: A headlong rush into Europe-wide harmonisation? New Journal of European Criminal Law, 13(2), 198-215. DOI: 10.1177/20322844221104916

Trinchera, T. (2020). Confiscation and asset recovery: Better tools to fight bribery and corruption crime. Criminal Law Forum, 31, 49-79. DOI: 10.1007/s10609-020-09382-1

Vesterhav, D., Forman, M., & Korsell, L. (2021). Criminal assets recovery in Sweden. Trends in Organized Crime, 24, 111-136. DOI: 10.1007/s12117-020-09388-6

Vozniuk, A., & Tytko, A. (2019). The criminal law model of counteracting illicit enrichment in Ukraine. Bulletin of the Penitentiary Association of Ukraine, 2(8), 46-62. DOI: 10.34015/2523-4552.2019.2.05

World Drug Report 2023. (2023). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report.html

World Drug Report 2025. (2025). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2025.html


Abstract views: 20
PDF Downloads: 11
Published
2026-03-31
Issue
Vol 1 No 71 (2026)
Section
Статті

Authors reserve the right to authorship of their own work and transfer to the magazine the right of the first publication of this work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows other persons to freely distribute published work with mandatory reference to authors of the original work and the first publication of an article in this magazine.
Authors have the right to enter into separate additional agreements on non-exclusive dissemination of the work in the form in which it was published in the journal (for example, to post an article in the institution's repository or to publish as part of a monograph), provided that the link to the first publication of the work in this journal is maintained.
The journal's policy allows and encourages the posting of articles by authors on the Internet (for example, in electronic storehouses of institutions or on personal websites), both before the submission of this manuscript to the editorial office and during its editorial processing, as this contributes to the creation of a productive scientific discussion and positively affects the efficiency and dynamics of citing the published work.