Follow the Money but Then What? Rethinking Asset Recovery

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Introduction

The recovery of assets derived from unlawful activity has become an increasingly prominent element of domestic, regional and international legal frameworks (Ochnio, 2024). While historically associated with corruption and Anti-Money Laundering enforcement, asset recovery has evolved into a complex legal field (Helfer, Rose and Brewster, 2023). In an era marked by transnational financial flows, digitalisation, geopolitical instability, and increased concern about corruption, sanctions evasions and financial crime, asset recovery now occupies a central position in contemporary debates (Moiseienko, 2024). It is often observed that the focus remains on the investigation and prosecution of financial crime, while asset recovery is ineffective in some instances (UNCAC Coalition, n.d.). Recovery rates remain low, while the social and economic consequences of confiscation are unevenly distributed, often affecting family members, third parties, or economically vulnerable actors with limited access to legal remedies (Ivory, 2017). Additionally, recent reforms in the EU and the UK have intensified asset recovery efforts by strengthening preventive and non-conviction-based confiscation measures through expanded authority of relevant bodies (Androulakis, 2023; Borlini and Rose, 2024). However, concerns have been raised from a fundamental rights perspective regarding deficiencies in procedural safeguards and judicial oversight (Bernardini, 2025; Hryniewicz-Lach, 2025). These asymmetries raise questions that the legal literature has not fully addressed (Borlini and Rose, 2024).

This special issue seeks to explore asset recovery as an evolving legal concept, rather than merely an attachment to the Anti-Money Laundering regime. The aim of the special issue is threefold. First, it seeks to enhance the conceptual clarity by examining the foundations, rationales and objectives of asset recovery regimes. Second, it aims to evaluate the effectiveness and legitimacy of existing asset recovery mechanisms in responding to contemporary forms of financial crime. Third, the special issue seeks to promote a dialogue by analysing how asset recovery frameworks operate across different jurisdictions and legal traditions, as well as within international and regional legal orders.

List of Topic Areas

The Special Issue welcomes original scholarly contributions focused on a range of issues related to asset recovery.

Topics of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• Conceptual and theoretical foundations of asset recovery
• Criminal confiscation, civil forfeiture, and non-conviction-based asset recovery
• Asset freezing, seizure, and confiscation
• Asset recovery in corruption
• Cross-border asset recovery and international cooperation
• Digital assets, cryptocurrencies and emerging challenges for asset recovery
• Asset recovery in the context of organised crime and financial crime
• The role of financial institutions and gatekeepers in asset tracking and recovery
• Future directions and reform of asset recovery frameworks.

Submissions Information

The Journal of Money Laundering Control is a social sciences journal that publishes the highest-quality papers on understanding the criminological perspectives of offending and money laundering control. We do not consider papers whose primary focus or implications lie in other fields, such as accounting, economics or finance.

The journal also accepts robust and critical comparative studies and legal discourses on the relationship between anti-money laundering, laws, regulations, legal institutions, and legal processes. Submissions must make an original contribution to important debates within the field of anti-money laundering and/or the countering the financing of terrorism.

Submissions are assessed based on the extent to which they contribute new knowledge to the field of money laundering control, as well as on the overall quality, coherence, and clarity of their argument and presentation.

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Author guidelines must be strictly followed.

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Author Guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Note that all papers submitted to the special issue must comply with the aims and scope of the journal.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal. Papers submitted after the closing date for manuscripts submission (01/02/2027) will not be considered for publication in the special issue.

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 15/05/2026

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 01/02/2027

Publication of the Special Issue is expected in 2027 and papers will be available for Earlycite when accepted.

Contact

If you would like to discuss the special issue and your potential contribution, please get in touch with the Editor-in-Chief, Dr Paul Gilmour at: paul.gilmour@port.ac.uk

Guest Editors 

Dr Andreas Karapatakis, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, a.karapatakis@liverpool.ac.uk 

Dr Dimitrios Kafteranis, Research Centre for Resilient Business and Society, Coventry University, dimitrios.kafteranis@coventry.ac.uk