Kinetics and mechanistic investigations of copper(II)-catalyzed oxidation of L-asparagine (Asn) by hexachloroplatinate(IV) (HCP) was performed in alkaline medium at a constant ionic strength of 0.2 mol dm-3 and at 25 oC using a conventional spectrophotometric technique. A first order dependence in both [HCP] and [CuII] and fractional-first order kinetics with respect to both [Asn] and [OH- ] were observed. Increasing ionic strength and dielectric constant increases the oxidation rate. The proposed mechanism indicated that the reaction proceeds via formation of copper(II) _ asparagine intermediate complex, which reacts with the oxidant in the rate-determining step to give rise to the oxidation products which were identified as αformyl acetamide, ammonia and carbon dioxide. In this context, platinum(IV) is reduced to platinum(II) by the substrate in a one-step twoelectron transfer process. The rate law associated with the reaction mechanism is deduced. Activation parameters of the reaction have been evaluated and discussed.