Jones on Extradition and Mutual Assistance

A TIMELY REMINDER ABOUT EXTRADITION

�To extradite or not to extradite, that is the question!� This new edition states the law as at 1st June 2001. Barely three months later, in New York, the world was reminded why we need to have much greater mutual assistance across the planet.

Alun Jones is the master of the intricies of extradition eccentricity. Throughout, he retains a blatant fairness which surrounds the emotive procedures often adopted. As he points out, over half of the copies of the book will be purchased by overseas customers. The ten page introduction gives a flavour of current concerns as we have only had minor statutory changes in the last 6 years. The 19 chapters cover much useful ground and Jones gives well-deserved credit to those who contributed indirectly to the contents.

The book has 3 parts covering the historical and international context, extradition to and from UK, and mutual legal assistance. There are also substantial appendices to cover statutes, statutory instruments and other relevant instruments. In part three Jones has an extremely able co-author in Laura Davidson and, together, they have produced two excellent chapters to cover the more difficult issues of what is termed �mutual assistance�.

The role of unreported cases receives special treatment in this work. There are a large number in the book together with high profile cases such as the Pinochet case where Alun Jones was leading counsel. I was particularly taken with the coverage of procedural issues - the bane of existence for many lawyers!

However, Jones explains the process with immense clarity and sets out the remedies which can be sought. I have often been asked why �so-and-so� has not been brought to justice to be followed by a lengthy dissertation on our �appalling� extradition laws. I have the remedy for this social chit-chat - read Jones on Extradition. If it doesn�t shut them up it will certainly send them to sleep. Probably, this is for the best because a deft hand is needed when dealing with arrangements between ourselves and other nations. Notice that I have deliberately ignored the word �diplomatic�, probably because I do feel diplomacy to be an irrelevance once a cast-iron agreement between countries can be achieved. It is at this time that a well-oiled extradition mechanism can work.

Comment has been made of the conflict between human rights and the powers a state requires when combating terrorism. If critics of the current Afghan War attack powers taken by the Government to restrict some aspects of human rights, they might take the trouble to see how carefully our extradition procedures are moulded to preserve rights where possible. My only grave concern is the sheer amount of time it takes before justice can complete its course. I thought Jones could have been more forthright when reviewing the proposals for reform and the discretionary powers of the Home Secretary of the day. But he did highlight the Home Secretary�s difficulty when trying to resolve questions of fact such as those in Saifi.

Any reader tempted to support UK withdrawal from the EU should read the new part C very carefully indeed. What I found of particular importance was the detail contained in the section on the National Criminal Intelligence Service (�NCIS�). The re-organisation of the NCIS after 1 April 1998 surely sets us on the path towards a fully integrated national police force for the United Kingdom in the years to come. To test whether this will actually work in practice, or not, will probably now be seen by the success of the war against international terrorism now being waged. It is fortuitous that this excellent book has arrived at just the right time for the debate to get underway.

I may add that, as many practitioners will know from experience, our relationship with Interpol and now Europol has not exactly been smooth in the past. I do hope that the final chapter 19 covering Europe, the Commonwealth and the United States of America will be clearly understood because European Union officials continue to insist that the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights forbids the extradition of suspects to countries where they would face the death penalty.

There is the unfortunate danger that Laura Davidson�s valuable work to date will be in need of urgent revision once the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda has come to a final conclusion.

Since publication, Spain has now announced an open-door policy for the eventual extradition of suspected terrorists in the face of continued legal, political and human rights issues. Therefore, chapter 19 may well need future updating as European Union initiatives are implemented.

My experience of extradition law was relatively small until I read this book. Jones and his colleagues have produced a straight-forward, well-presented and researched statement of how the law works at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is not uncommon to realise how little one actually knows of the law in other jurisdictions when reading through the chapter headings.

I was particularly interested in out curious extradition arrangements with the Republic of Ireland (chapter 17) and understood very quickly why there is often such a lack of enthusiasm when chasing someone who has disappeared into the green pastures of Eire. It made me think, yes, the question to extradite must be raised and considered in each and every case. And there must be very good, substantial grounds for agreement to proceed because it only takes one occasion when arrangements are fouled up for the whole concept to be questioned at its very roots by certain countries who disregard human rights and have things to hide. That price must never be too high if we in the free world are to bring perpetrators of international and criminal terrorism to justice.

We would let those who died on 11th September 2001 down.