Extradition is the surrender of a person accused of crime to the government of a foreign country, within which the crime is alleged to have been committed. The duty of making such surrender has long been acknowledged by civilised nations; but some governments refuse to surrender their own subjects when accused of offences against a foreign law. In England it has been held that no executive officer has authority to surrender any person found within Her Majesty's dominions unless empowered to do so by act of parliament. Modern facilities for travelling have made extradition a subject of great importance. In 1843 the British government concluded an extradition treaty with France, and parliament passed an act giving the executive the necessary powers. Since that time treaties have been made by all, or almost all, civilised governments for the surrender of criminals; and even before the extradition treaty with Spain (1878), for example, offenders were given up by the Spanish government—thus in 1872 Bidwell, the bank forger, was extradited by Spain. The British practice is regulated by the Extradition Acts of 1870 and 1873, slightly modified by an Act of 1895. The extradition treaty between Britain and the United States was concluded in 1842, with France in 1843, with Germany in 1872, with ten countries, including Austria (1875), Belgium (1876), and Russia (1887), between 1873 and 1887, and with the Argentine Republic in 1893. Any police-magistrate may order the detention of a person accused of crime committed abroad on the same evidence as would justify committal of a person accused of crime committed in England. But the person detained is not surrendered until a demand has been addressed to a secretary of state by a diplomatic representative of the government making the demand. The secretary of state may direct a magistrate to inquire into the case; and on such inquiry the prisoner may show that the evidence against him is not sufficient to justify his committal and surrender for trial, or that the crime of which he is accused is not an 'extradition crime'—i.e. not within the treaties and acts which apply to the case. The list of extradition crimes, as fixed by the Act of 1870, includes murder, manslaughter, forgery, larceny, frauds by bankers, extortion by threats, and many other offences. If the magistrate certifies that he has committed the accused, the secretary of state gives a warrant for his surrender; but not until fifteen days have elapsed; during this interval the prisoner may, if so advised, apply to a superior court for a habeas corpus. Political offences are expressly excluded from the category of 'extradition crimes;' but it is to be observed that a political offence does not mean an offence committed from political motives, but an offence committed during a time of civil war or open insurrection (see POLITICAL OFFENCES, REFUGEE). A person surrendered on a specific charge may not be tried on any other charge. In 1877 a Royal Commission, appointed to consider the law of extradition, presented a report in which certain reforms were suggested, which have not yet been carried out. The Commission recommended that treaties should not be considered indispensable, and that British subjects should be surrendered as well as foreigners. It happens sometimes that the person whose surrender is demanded is not a subject of either government—a Spanish subject, for example, may commit crimes in Russia and take refuge in England. In this case the British government would probably not surrender the accused to Russia without obtaining the consent of Spain. In the United States offenders from one state taking refuge in another are usually surrendered by the governor thereof without question; but even in such cases constitutional points of considerable difficulty have sometimes arisen.
See E. Clarke's Treatise on Extradition (2d ed. 1874); Kirchner's Law and Practice relative to Fugitive Offenders (1882), and Recueil de tous les Traités, &c. (1883); and Hertslet's Treaties and Laws relating to Commerce, Extradition, &c. (1885).