Extradition Under International Law

Abstract

Extradition is the formal process whereby a fugitive offender is surrendered to the State in which an offence was allegedly committed in order to stand trial to serve a sentence of imprisonment. Generally speaking extradition takes place in accordance with bilateral treaties or multilateral conventions entered into by Sovereign States. These treaties and conventions ordinarily impose an obligation on the requested country to surrender to a requesting country a person charged with or convicted of an offence of a certain specified gravity in that country, subject to conditions and exceptions. Extradition is based on the principle that it is in the interest of all civilized communities that offenders should not be allowed to escape justice by crossing national borders and that States should facilitate the punishment of criminal conduct. The process of extradition, which is founded on the concept of reciprocity, comity and respect for differences in other jurisdictions aims to further international co-operation in criminal justice matters and strengthens domestic law enforcement. The nature of research on extradition essentially requires one to examine in the light of the principles of public international law. The scope of research in the said topic entails a detailed study of the general norms underlying the concept of extradition and also the practice of the States. The nature and the scope of the research are further explained in the subsequent sections.