Specialty: Arresting an elusive ‘right’ in European extradition law

Abstract

Specialty (a near-universal rule of extradition law whereby a person extradited cannot be prosecuted or punished for matters other than those for which they were extradited) is viewed traditionally as a tool to protect the sovereignty of the extraditing state, rather than as an individual right. A review of international material shows a dispute as to the existence of a rule or principle of specialty in customary international law and emphasises themes such as enforceability and standing of individuals to plead violations. Against that backdrop, the European situation is characterised by the presence of broad specialty rules which are not always implemented in legislation by requesting states, leading to refusal of extradition in some cases. Arguably, combinations of the EU law duty of conforming interpretation and European human rights law principles may offer tools to overcome such situations, approaching protection of specialty ‘rights’ whatever the original doctrinal rationale. If they do not, and international cooperation is further undermined by ineffective specialty protection, EU legislation or the development of soft law standards may be a useful way forward.