Memorandum by the Magistrates Association
We agree that the motive—to reduce the
possibility of people accused of crimes abroad being locked up
abroad instead of coming home and remaining under some sort of
supervision—is a good idea in principle. However, the practical
difficulties appear huge. To begin with there would have to be
fairly major primary legislation and the numbers, according to
the document signed by Baroness Scotland, do not appear to be
large. The proposal not only covers recognition by each state
of a judicial decision in another—a big change in itself—but
goes on to envisage the "other" state being able to
order arrest and extradition of a subject from his or her `own'
state in the case of breach. This could open up the possibility
of numerous and grave complications and we do not think that we
can offer any useful or informed comment on this. We are also
unsure whether this would be a matter for magistrates courts.
However, of the five policy options we would definitely be against
option 3 (involving extending the European Arrest Warrant for
all offences) and option 5 (Eurobail).
1 June 2007
|
