Every now and then, someone asks me about international extradition. Usually it’s about Roman Polanski or some other bigwig charged in New York or California, but once in a while there’s a North Carolina connection, like “if Brad Cooper had fled to Canada, could he have been extradited back to stand trial?” Plus, it’s just a cool topic. So I thought I’d do a post about how it works, with the caveat right up front that this is on the fringes of my expertise. “International extradition is the formal process by which a person found in one country is surrendered to another country for trial or punishment. The process is regulated by treaty and conducted between the Federal Government of the United States and the government of a foreign country.” United States Attorneys’ Manual § 9-15.000. Generally, extradition is possible only if the United States and the foreign country in question have an extradition treaty; a list of extradition treaties is available here. We have treaties with Canada and Mexico, and with most other nations that you could name in the next ten seconds; a list of nations with which we don’t have a treaty can be viewed here. Of some relevance in connection with the ongoing DSK case, the United States does have an extradition treaty with France . . . but it appears to exempt most French nationals, as discussed in this article. Extradition is available only for certain offenses, though which offenses are extraditable depends on the country [...]
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