The priority of not offending foreign states: dispatching Australians to face remote justice

The very nature of extradition involves the sending of individuals to face justice in remote localities. Unlike civil law states, whichgenerally don’t extradite their own nationals, Australia and other common law states have readily surrendered their citizens to facejustice in foreign states. While that usually involves returning the person to the state where the offence occurred, the emergence oftrans-national criminal activity and the expansive extra-territorial jurisdiction exercised by some states can lead to p ersons beingextradited to countries with which they have had no direct connection and in which they have never set foot. This paper considers some of the developments in international extradition law; with particular emphasis on the extent to which Australia will consider matters such as the quality of the foreign justice system and the likely treatment of the person should they be surrendered