Moving Beyond Soering: U.S. Prison Conditions as an Argument Against Extradition to the United States

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the European Union, via the European Human Rights Commission, has prevented the extradition of certain individuals to the United States based on a limited number of exceptions. This article suggests that the time is ripe to use the argument that high levels of prison violence and poor medical care, violates Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereafter European Convention), and Article 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (hereafter FREU). Additionally, the passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act violates Article 13 of the European Convention and Article 47 of the FREU, and thus signatories to this document are well within their rights to block extradition to the United States. This legal defense however, does not prevent EU members from prosecuting and incarcerating individuals wanted by the United States in their own country once extradition proceedings have concluded.

Keywords: extradition, legal issues, courts/law, Western Europe, comparative crime/justice, corrections, European Union, Prison Litigation Reform Act, European Human Rights Commission

JEL Classification: K14, K19, K33, K39, K49