EXTRADITION LAW IN AUSTRALIA: TIME FOR A RATIONAL APPROACH

Extradition is concerned with the executive act of repatriating a fugitive to the country in which an alleged crime is said to have been committed. Normally, it makes no difference that the fugitive may be living in a civil law country and that his or her extradition is sought by a common law country, or vice versa. Extradition is an executive act ? it is not a judicial act. In the global environment of the third millennium, the law of extradition endeavours to balance two laudable but mutually exclusive objectives. The first is the apprehension of persons accused of crimes and their rendition for trial in the overseas jurisdiction in which the crime was said to have been committed. The second is the reservation of civil liberties and human rights which, without the safeguards conferred by legislation governing extradition, would be compromised, if not altogether abrogated.