National Security, Cyber Security, and Mutual Legal Assistance-2024 Mutual Legal Assistance International Conference and its Related Activities Successfully Concluded

Due to the increasing number of cross-border fraud and money laundering cases, as well as the rising importance of national security and trade secrets, judicial cooperation between our country and others has become more frequent and crucial. To effectively establish communication channels and enhance international cooperation, the Ministry of Justice (hereinafter referred to as MOJ) invited prosecutors, lawyers, and coordinators from the United States, Canada, Estonia, Germany, and EUROJUST to participate in the "2024 Mutual Legal Assistance International Conference and its Related Activities" from June 4 to 7, 2024. This event aimed to discuss key issues such as national security, trade secrets, artificial intelligence, and asset recovery, and to facilitate exchanges with our prosecutors, law enforcement, and judicial personnel, thereby expanding various judicial cooperation relationships with other countries and enhancing Taiwan's visibility internationally.

On June 4, the “2024 International Seminar on National Security and Trade Secrets” was held at the Boai Auditorium of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office, co-organized by the Supreme Prosecutors Office, focusing on national security and trade secrets. Deputy Minister Huang, Shih-Chieh delivered the opening remarks, and Prosecutor-General Hsing, Tai-Chao chaired the seminar, inviting prosecutors from the US Department of Justice and the Chief State Prosecutor with the Estonian Prosecutor General's Office, as well as prosecutors from this Ministry's Department of Prosecutorial Affairs, the Intellectual Property Branch of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office, the Head Prosecutor of the Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutors Office, and the Acting Deputy Director of the Information and Communication Security Division, Investigation Bureau, MOJ. They discussed and interacted on topics such as economic espionage, disinformation, and deepfake technology's impact on national security and elections. Deputy Minister Huang highlighted in his speech the rapid development of economic espionage activities and disinformation, posing significant threats to the political, economic, and social stability of all countries, and deeply affecting national security. Therefore, MOJ hopes to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms in both legal and practical aspects to address these issues jointly. Besides inviting prosecutors at all levels, the seminar also included representatives from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) stationed in Taiwan, the Executive Yuan's National Security Office, the Ministry of National Defense's Political Warfare Bureau, the Military Police Command, the Investigation Bureau, the Agency Against Corruption, and the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the National Police Agency.

On June 6, the “2024 Mutual Legal Assistance International Conference” was held in Nantou, focusing on issues regarding mutual legal assistance. Deputy Minister Hsu, Hsi-Hsiang delivered the opening remarks, and the morning sessions were chaired by Chief Prosecutor Huang Yuan-Kuang of the Taiwan Nantou District Prosecutors Office and Head Prosecutor Albert, Tsai Chiu-Ming of the Supreme Prosecutors Office. MOJ invited representatives from the US Department of Justice, the Canadian Department of Justice, the Celle Prosecutor General's Office in Germany, the Estonian Prosecutor General's Office, the Czech national member of EUROJUST, a German lawyer, Deputy Director General of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs, MOJ, Professor Lin Chin-Fu from National Tsing Hua University, and the Head Prosecutor of the Taiwan Yilan District Prosecutors Office. They engaged in in-depth exchanges and discussions on critical issues relating mutual legal assistance, focusing on trade secrets, artificial intelligence, and asset recovery. Deputy Minister Hsu emphasized the hope that through the discussions in this conference, we could learn from international experiences such as the EU AI Act, and thereby formulate more comprehensive laws in related areas.

The conference series and related exchange activities concluded successfully on June 7. The diverse and rich topics of this event, along with the exchange between international speakers and our prosecutors, helped to establish and deepen friendships, strengthen international cooperation, enhance professional knowledge and skills, and improve investigation, prosecution, and litigation techniques. This will facilitate the flexible use of mutual legal assistance and other types of international judicial cooperation channels and increase the success rate of cross-border evidence collection.