To what extent can an English extradition court take account of the prospect of early release overseas? George Hepburne Scott calls for clarity
- Recent High Court extradition appeal decisions have considered the prospective application of discretionary early release in foreign jurisdictions and the impact this can or ought to have upon the weight to be attached to the public interest in extradition in the cases under consideration.
- There has been an apparent lack of consensus among High Court judges on this issue, such that a test case has now been granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
An interesting aspect of extradition law is the consideration of the legal systems of foreign jurisdictions. This is most frequently done by reference to the dual-criminality test under ss 64 and 65 of the Extradition Act 2003—whereby the conduct for which extradition is sought (either through an accusation or a conviction) must also constitute a crime in England and Wales (‘the conduct test’).
However, other considerations of the law of foreign jurisdictions also arise. For example, under
