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As we mentioned in our preview of this week’s business in the Supreme Court, the human rights and civil liberties NGO is intervening in the appeal of Norris v Government of United States (previewed by us here), currently being heard by a 9 judge panel. Liberty has now kindly supplied us with the Written Case which it has put before the Court.
In its submission, Liberty points out that case turns upon a fundamental tension in extradition law, namely the legitimate aim of seeking to uphold international treaty obligations in the realm of crime prevention and punishment counterpoised against the requirement to ensure the protection of individuals against unwarranted infringements of their human rights. It does not make submissions on the discrete merits or de-merits of the Appellant’s claim. It submits that there is no standardised or generic test in Article 8 extradition cases and that in applying the test of proportionality the Court should look at a wide range of factors and apply ‘anxious scrutiny’ to the extradition request particularly in the context of the reduction of individual rights since the coming into force of the 2003 Act.
In summary, it submits that proper regard to the importance of the protection of fundamental human rights under the Convention should compel a Court to reject the notion of high threshold tests under Article 8.
Thank you to Liberty for supplying us with a copy of its case. We will post copies of the parties’ cases if they make these available to us. We invite parties to any Supreme Court appeals to let us have copies of their Written Cases so that we can make these available to the public pending the full operation of the Court’s case management system in conjunction with its website.
