Theresa May should think again about the European Arrest Warrant
David Green, 27 October 2014
Blackstone famously said in the 1760s: ‘the law holds that it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer’. Benjamin Franklin increased the number to 100. He thought it had been long and generally approved that ‘it is better 100 guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer’.
This maxim in one form or another has been commonplace, but in her enthusiasm for the European Arrest Warrant, Theresa May has forgotten it. She seems to think it’s worth jailing some innocent people if it is the necessary price of nailing the guilty.
Apparently without the warrant we will become ‘a honeypot for all of Europe’s criminals on the run from justice’. Surely not if we check people at our borders – or is she now admitting that border checks are completely inadequate.
According to the Home Office, in the past Irish courts refused to extradite IRA members suspected of crimes, and it’s only because of the European Arrest Warrant that they started to hand them over. Irish courts used the ploy that IRA activity was ‘political’ but there is a provision in the Framework Decision of 2002 (the EU document that governs the arrest warrant) that allows non-implementation in political cases:
‘Nothing in this Framework Decision may be interpreted as prohibiting refusal to surrender a person for whom a European arrest warrant has been issued when there are reasons to believe, on the basis of objective elements, that the said arrest warrant has been issued for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing a person on the grounds of his or her sex, race, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, language, political opinions or sexual orientation, or that that person’s position may be prejudiced for any of these reasons.’
If the Irish or any other courts want to refuse extradition on ‘political’ grounds there is nothing to stop them.
And then there is the example of Spain. We are told that, because of the arrest warrant, our gangsters can no longer escape justice merely by going there. Perhaps, but the European Arrest Warrant will not stop gangsters escaping justice. They will just go wherever else in the world they can find a safe haven.
The 1957 European Convention on Extradition is still in place. It has been amended from time to time, including in 1989, 1995 and 1996, and could continue to serve as the legal basis for extradition without abandoning our hard-won liberties.