Criminal Asset Seizure, Asset Recovery, and Insolvency Proceedings: A Systematic Literature Review of Legal Conflicts, Creditor Protection, and Institutional Coordination

This systematic literature review examines how recent legal scholarship conceptualizes criminal asset seizure, asset recovery, confiscation, forfeiture, and property conflicts arising in insolvency proceedings. The review applies the PRISMA 2020 reporting framework and a doctrinal-thematic synthesis to analyze Scopus-indexed, open-access journal articles published between 2020 and 2025. The Scopus search identified 97 records. After applying eligibility criteria for open-access status, journal source type, English language, and publication year, 60 records remained. Title, abstract, and keyword screening retained 40 articles, while full-text eligibility assessment resulted in 29 studies being included in the final analysis. The findings demonstrate that asset recovery is a multistage legal process encompassing asset tracing, provisional seizure or freezing, confiscation or forfeiture, asset management, and the return or distribution of recovered assets. The review further finds that state asset recovery powers are justified by the public interest, deterrence, victim restitution, and recovery of state losses but are constrained by the principles of legality, due process, proportionality, legal certainty, property rights, and the protection of bona fide third parties. The primary contribution of this review is a Doctrinal Coordination Model that integrates criminal asset recovery, insolvency administration, creditor protection, and institutional coordination into a unified framework for resolving conflicts involving assets subject to multiple legal regimes.