Over the past few weeks, several countries have suspended their respective extradition treaties with Hong Kong. The suspensions have purportedly been in response to national security laws passed by China. Leaving aside questions of international politics, one question that arises is: Is the suspension ever appropriate, bearing in mind the purpose of extradition treaties?
Extradition is a process whereby one sovereign state requests of another sovereign state the surrender of an individual to the requesting state. The aim of a request for extradition is that the requested individual stand trial for a crime of which they have been accused or to serve a sentence for a crime of which they have been convicted in the requesting state.
In many countries, suspension of a treaty means that extraditions cannot then occur between the state parties. Suspension means that the purpose of extradition, bringing fugitives to justice, is seriously compromised. While suspension could signal a political refusal to extradite, legally extradition would still be open. Conversely, keeping the treaty extant does not prevent a case-by-case analysis of whether particular extraditions are in the interests of justice.
Though the treaty had been suspended during World War II, Mr Harksen argued that the treaty had automatically revived at the end of the war. The Cape Town High Court rejected this argument. The court held that the treaty had not revived automatically once World War II ended, nor had Germany and South Africa subsequently agreed to revive the treaty.
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