Post-Brexit extradition arrangements clarified

On 20 January 2021, the Divisional Court dismissed five applications for habeas corpus in which it had been argued by the applicants that, as from 1 January 2021, the pre-existing European Arrest Warrant (EAW) scheme pursuant to which they had been arrested, no longer applied. Helen Malcolm QC acted for the successful judicial authorities of Poland, Germany, Portugal, Latvia and Lithuania.

The Court concluded that the matter should have more properly been brought by judicial review, and held that the EAW scheme underpinned by the European Framework Decision continued to apply to all EAW requests where arrest took place before 11pm on 31 December 2020. Thereafter, Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003 continued to apply (with limited modifications) and the international basis for such extradition was governed by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

20th January 2021