Book Description

The individual's position as a "subject," commonplace in national proceedings, is not at all clear when the need for extradition, mutual assistance or some other form of international cooperation arises in the context of domestic criminal proceedings. This book analyzes traditional concepts in which only two dimensions are represented, namely, that of the requesting and that of the requested state. Beyond this, the authors searched for a full three-dimensionality as well. The general approach was: If the individual is recognized as having his or her own subjective, substantive and procedural rights, be they conferred by international treaties or conventions or simply by municipal law (here, especially, constitutional guarantees), the legal relationships under study can no longer be seen as two-dimensional. The project focussed not only on extradition but also on other forms of international cooperation in criminal matters, including the enforcement of sanctions. The "choice of forum" came to be seen as a special topic and turned out to be an issue of paramount importance. In addition, our study of international administrative cooperation allowed us to cover some crucial gray areas that would not otherwise have been identified, e.g., police cooperation and international cooperation in tax matters. The book contains national reports on Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States as well as a report on the European Union.