A Model for Indonesia–Thailand Cross-Border Law Enforcement Cooperation

Abstract

Cross-border crime involving Indonesia and Thailand increasingly combines physical mobility, digital communications, financial transactions, and dispersed assets. Existing cooperation has produced arrests, extraditions, information exchanges, and victim repatriations, yet its request-based structure remains fragmented. This article examines whether the current legal architecture can support timely, rights-compliant investigations and proposes an integrated bilateral model. Using doctrinal, comparative, treaty-based, and policy approaches, it analyses legislation, treaties, official reports, institutional practices, and selected European mechanisms. The study finds that the 1976 extradition treaty, ASEAN Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, UNTOC, UNCAC, ACTIP, sectoral agreements, and the 2023 police memorandum provide substantial authority but do not create common case management, binding service standards, coordinated prosecution, a shared digital-evidence protocol, or continuous asset recovery. The article proposes the Indonesia–Thailand Joint Investigation and Asset Recovery Mechanism (IT-JIARM), established through a bilateral treaty and domestic implementing legislation. It combines a permanent secretariat, case-specific joint investigation teams, prosecutors, financial analysts, a 24/7 urgent channel, victim referral, digital-evidence rules, and an end-to-end asset pathway. Its novelty lies in adapting selected European practices without importing supranational mutual recognition. Effectiveness should be measured through timeliness, evidentiary usability, victim protection, surrender outcomes, recovered assets, judicial safeguards, independent oversight, and transparent public accountability.