Human Rights Standards as a Bar to Extradition from the European Union to the United Kingdom

Abstract Since 1 January 2021, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union has regulated extradition to and from the United Kingdom and Member States of the European Union. A recent judgment of a German court denying extradition of a suspect to the United Kingdom illustrates the subtle differences between the terms and operation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement Warrant and those of the European Arrest Warrant that had applied previously. This paper notes the absence of mutual trust as an underlying principle in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and the failure of the British authorities to grasp and respond to the changed criteria. At the same time, it highlights the implications of a judgment that finds that the treatment of prisoners in British prisons might be so inhuman and degrading that persons should not be extradited to face imprisonment in the United Kingdom.