Why does the UK tolerate a one-sided extradition treaty with the US?

[BrilloPad]

BBC News - Christopher Tappin loses Iran missile extradition bid

BBC News - Obama quizzed on TVShack accused Richard O'Dwyer extradition

Not much of a special relationship if it is only one way.

[TimberWolf]

The only time it was special was when Maggie ruled the world.

[Paddy]

We have done this a on CUK few times previously. The agreement is so ridiculous that US military personnel committing crimes in the UK such a rape and murder are not prosecuted and are allowed to go back to the US.

The three way alliance between France UK and the US is known as FUKUS not just because it is an acronym

[NotAllThere]

Because of an almighty great cockup by the previous administration. We signed up to it, expecting the US to making it two way, and then they decided not to.

[Incognito]

Not much of a special relationship if it is only one way.

Because it isn't one-sided apart from in the eyes of the likes of you and your conspiracy theorists.

Critics argue it is unfair for the US to require "sufficient evidence to establish probable cause" before agreeing to extradite anyone to the UK, while Britons are denied the same protection.

But despite repeated questions from MPs on the committee Sir Scott insisted there was no practical difference between "probable cause" and the UK requirement to allow extradition on "reasonable suspicion"....

But Sir Scott disagreed: "The test in the Act, you couldn't put a sheet of tissue paper between that and the test the other way for extradition from the United States.

"Nobody has drawn our attention to any single case at any stage... where it would have made any difference whether you applied the American test or the United Kingdom test.

BBC News - Judge says extradition from US quicker than from UK

The standards are the same in practice:

All extradition requests between the U.S. and UK must meet the same evidentiary standard: probable cause. All requests from the U.S. must meet the standard of “reasonable suspicion” required under UK law. However, all requests from the U.S. must also be based on a charging document that meets the “probable cause” standard required under U.S. law. This is the same standard that the U.S. requires of extradition requests from the UK The panel reviewed the evidence and concluded: “There is no practical difference between the information submitted to and from the United States.”

The relationship is one of parity:

The treaty is a “dual criminality” treaty. No one can be extradited by either country unless the offense for which extradition is requested is a crime in both countries and carries a prison sentence of at least one year.

The numbers do not demonstrate imbalance:

The United States has not denied a single extradition request from the UK under the treaty. While the U.S. does send more extradition requests to the UK than it receives, this difference is largely due to the differences in the size of the respective populations. The panel report notes that the U.S. has a population about five times the size of the UK, but there have been fewer than twice the number of people extradited to the U.S. than to the UK. The number of U.S. requests is not disproportionate.

Fact Sheet on the U.S.-UK Extradition Treaty | Embassy of the United States London, UK

[NotAllThere]

Don't confuse us with logic and facts.

[darmstadt]

Because the old world likes a bit of new flesh up the jacksie?

[AtW]

Not much of a special relationship if it is only one way.

Special isn't the same as equal.

HTH

[Paddy]

Because it isn't one-sided apart from in the eyes of the likes of you and your conspiracy theorists.



BBC News - Judge says extradition from US quicker than from UK



Fact Sheet on the U.S.-UK Extradition Treaty | Embassy of the United States London, UK

Does the US refusal to extradite IRA murderers to the UK count?

[xoggoth]

The United States has not denied a single extradition request from the UK under the treaty. While the U.S. does send more extradition requests to the UK than it receives, this difference is largely due to the differences in the size of the respective populations. The panel report notes that the U.S. has a population about five times the size of the UK, but there have been fewer than twice the number of people extradited to the U.S. than to the UK. The number of U.S. requests is not disproportionate.

Eh?????? So if China had a similar treaty with Lichtenstein, for every 1 Chinese extradited to Lichtenstein there should be 37142 extradited to China, slightly more than the entire population.

What a load of cock! It would make slightly more sense to argue that the number of extradition requests should be equal to the number of offenders so, assuming equal levels of criminality, ie the UK should make 5 times as many requests as the US do.

In reality, such simplistic assessments are just bollox, it depends on the number of offenders, the number of complainants, the nature of criminal laws, the relative leniency of them and the number of migrants to the other country.

People should not be taken in by such utter crap posing as fact.