The Times, 06 December 2004

UK-US extradition
From Lord Goodhart, QC

Sir, The extradition treaty signed last year by the UK and US is seriously flawed and offers no reciprocity. It allows America to extradite an individual from the UK without having to produce evidence that there is a prima facie case to answer, but the UK still has to provide prima facie evidence to get extradition from the US.

In addition, we were assured by the Government that the treaty would be ratified by the US in the early days of 2004, but the US Senate has so far failed to do so. Meanwhile, the UK has implemented the treaty without waiting for American ratification.

I will be raising these issues with the Government in the House of Lords on Monday.

If the US believes in the constitutional principle that people cannot be extradited without evidence, it should not expect nor ask the UK to extradite people to it without evidence. Nor should it expect us to implement a treaty that it has failed to ratify.

I am particularly concerned by the efforts of the US to extradite people for alleged crimes that have little connection with America.

Yours sincerely,
WILLIAM GOODHART
(Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the Lord Chancellor's Department),
House of Lords.
December 4.