International Criminal Cooperation Extradition and Surrender Procedures – Modern Trends and Problems
Purpose:
The time when each country praised its own criminal repression and avoided cooperation with other countries has long past. Today criminal cooperation in Europe is at its peak and includes extradition and surrender procedures for criminal suspects, defendants and those accused of a criminal offence.
Although international cooperation and unification of procedural regulations is important for prosecution of international crimes, there are also dilemmas regarding the excessive uniformity of rules - especially when acts that safeguard human rights are adjusted on account of “effective and fast” cooperation.
It is the purpose of this article to explain the history, modern trends and possible problems that extradition and surrender procedures present in today’s criminal law cooperation in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Methods:
The article is theoretical and practical in nature. Deductive, inductive and systematic methods of research are used to define the trends and problems of extradition and surrender procedures. The Comparative method is used to determine regulation restrictions and legal practice in other European countries.
Findings:
Extradition procedures are politically based cooperation, while surrender procedures are more of a judicial cooperation. Extradition procedures are slow, complex, ineffective but offer more legal guarantees to the suspect/defendant/ accused, while surrender procedures are fast, effective, based on the principle of trust and mutual recognition between countries of European Union, but offer less legal guarantees.
Research limitations / implications:
Findings here are important for law enforcement agents and judges. The article presents basic two approaches to criminal law cooperation regarding transfers of persons between countries. It also points out the basic dilemmas that both procedures present in today’s law practice and solutions on how to avoid these problems.
Originality/Value:
Institutions responsible for extradition or surrender procedures should take our concerns into considerations when they initiate or have to respond to an extradition or surrender demand or proposal.
UDC: 341.44
Keywords: criminal cooperation, extradition, surrender, European Convention on Extradition, arrest warrant, surrender procedures, criminal procedural law