Digital evidence underpin the majority of crimes as their analysis is an integral part of almost every criminal investigation. Even if we temporarily disregard the numerous challenges in the collection and analysis of digital evidence, the exchange of the evidence among the different stakeholders has many thorny issues. Of specific interest are cross-border criminal investigations as the complexity is significantly high due to the heterogeneity of legal frameworks, which beyond time bottlenecks can also become prohibiting. The aim of this article is to analyse the current state of practice of cross-border investigations considering the efficacy of current collaboration protocols along with the challenges and drawbacks to be overcome. Further to performing a legally oriented research treatise, we recall all the challenges raised in the literature and discuss them from a more practical yet global perspective. Thus, this article paves the way to enabling practitioners and stakeholders to leverage horizontal strategies to fill in the identified gaps timely and accurately.

中文翻译：

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SoK：跨境刑事调查和数字证据

数字证据是大多数犯罪的基础，因为它们的分析是几乎所有刑事调查的组成部分。即使我们暂时忽略数字证据收集和分析中的众多挑战，不同利益相关者之间的证据交换也存在许多棘手的问题。特别感兴趣的是跨境刑事调查，因为法律框架的异质性导致其复杂性非常高，超过时间瓶颈也可能变得令人望而却步。本文的目的是在考虑当前协作协议的有效性以及需要克服的挑战和缺点的情况下，分析跨境调查实践的现状。进一步执行以法律为导向的研究论文，我们回顾文献中提出的所有挑战，并从更实际但更全球化的角度讨论它们。因此，本文为使从业者和利益相关者能够利用横向策略及时准确地填补已识别的差距铺平了道路。