international legal assistance in criminal matters

International legal cooperation between states, international organizations and institutions of international character today is a very complicated and diverse process, because it arises from very complex, delicate and varied relationships. In their relationships oft en comes to the commencement of judicial and other proceedings, whose solving, requires a mutual judicial cooperation between domestic and foreign courts and other judicial authorities, which impose the need of the establishment of a legal mechanism that allows a legal protection for all participants in the proceedings. International legal assistance in criminal matters has a new dimension with significantly increased requirements for mutual cooperation between states in the last decade. The reason for this is the expansion of the criminal acts with a foreign element, which imposes the need of reformation of the Criminal law in the Republic of Macedonia. These reforms confirm the intention to adopt the process of unification with the acquis communuataire. Starting from these conditions, and to further the interest of citizens and other legal entities, this paper aims to review the most current issues in international legal assistance in terms of national, bilateral and multilateral legislation, detecting the weaknesses in its functioning and finding compatible solutions that shall be most efficient for achieving an international legal unification.