Realpolitik, not injustice, will determine UK extradition policy, says Andrew Smith
The human rights organisation Liberty is “baffled” by it. Gary McKinnon’s mother calls it “pathetic”. The home secretary, however, says she is “very grateful” for it.
Sir Scott Baker’s review of the UK’s extradition laws A review of the United Kingdom’s Extradition Arrangements, released to the public in the autumn after a year of work and at a reported cost of £250,000, has certainly provoked a range of reactions. At 488 pages in length, the one accusation nobody could make is that Sir Scott’s review, co-authored with David Perry QC and Anand Doobay, lacks thoroughness.
The review’s principal conclusions are as follows:
- The US/UK extradition treaty, which Nick Clegg once decried as “lop-sided”, “does not operate in an unbalanced manner” because “there is no significant difference between the probable cause test [the US evidential test applied by the UK courts] and the reasonable suspicion test [the UK evidential test applied by the US courts]”.
- The European Arrest Warrant (EAW), much criticised for allowing defendants to be extradited without any consideration by the
