Recent Developments In Extradition Appeals

There have been some important decisions of the higher courts in the last two years relating to appeals, particularly in European Arrest Warrant (EAW) cases, many of which are of equal application in other extradition cases. The EAW regime was introduced throughout the European Union in a hurry after 9/11 with little consideration for procedural safeguards required to balance its streamlined surrender procedure based on the concept of mutual recognition of warrants issued by national courts. The recent case of Herdman v Greece [2010] EWHC 1533 (Admin) is another harsh reminder for defence practitioners that courts are right to refuse adjournments where there has been ample time to obtain defence expert evidence (over six weeks in that case), that new evidence must not have been available in the court below and must be decisive and that the threshold for showing a real risk of a total denial of article 6 rights was a high one. All defence practitioners in extradition