The concept, signs, and legal nature of extradition

Currently, socially dangerous acts often extend beyond national borders, spreading negative influence worldwide. The possibility of free movement and the widespread implementation of information technologies in all areas of life create situations where the offender is a citizen of one state, the objective aspect of the crime occurs in another, and the harm is inflicted on the interests of a third state or a group of states. Holding such individuals accountable requires the development of complex mechanisms for cooperation between states, and the absence of legal collaboration often leads to practices where criminals, having committed a crime in one state, cross the borders of another to evade criminal responsibility, thus violating one of the fundamental principles of criminal law – the inevitability of punishment. In preparing this research, the author employed various methods, including formal-legal, historical, comparative methods, as well as methods of analysis, induction, and deduction. The concept of extradition, its types, and principles are not explicitly provided in federal legislation. Extradition should be understood as the procedure for the handing over of individuals accused of committing a crime, or convicted, from the requested sovereign state to the requesting state, carried out on the basis of a bilateral or multilateral international agreement, and in other cases – the principle of reciprocity, aimed at ensuring justice and achieving the goals of punishing offenders through the execution of a sentence. Extradition is an intersectoral institution of international cooperation among states in the fight against crime. Relationships in the field of extradition create complex integrated relationships, one part of which has an international-legal character, while the other is domestic. Domestic criminal procedural relations in the area of extradition serve as ensuring relationships with respect to international legal ones. The significance of extradition is determined by the fact that it performs a number of functions. Being enshrined in international legal acts and interstate agreements, it characterizes the cooperation of countries in combating crime, restoring social justice, strengthening international legal order, and implementing the principle of the inevitability of punishment for those who committed a crime in one state and then hid in the territory of another state. With significant preventive potential, extradition has a deterrent effect and ensures the social rehabilitation of convicts.