INTERNATIONAL LAW -EXTRADITION - CONSTRUCTION OF TREATY

Authors

Abstract

On complaint of the British Consul that the petitioner had "received certain moneys knowing the same to have been fraudulently obtained," the United States Commissioner for the Northern District of Illinois issued his warrant to hold petitioner in custody for extradition to England, under Article 10 of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, as supplemented by the Blaine-Pauncefote Convention of 1889, and certified the evidence to the Secretary of State. Upon application by petitioner for writ of habeas corpus and certiorari in its aid, the district court ordered him released from custody on the ground the act charged was not within the treaties because not an offense under the law of Illinois, where petitioner was found. The circuit court of appeals reversed this decision; restoring the judgment of the Commissioner that it was a crime by the law of Illinois, as decided in Kelly v. Griffin. Certiorari was granted on a petition alleging that the act charged must be a crime by the law of the asylum, and that the act charged herein was not. Held, the offense charged is an extraditable one under the applicable treaties because it is recognized as criminal by most States, and so is "criminal by the law of both countries," whether a crime in Illinois or not. Butler, Brandeis, and Roberts, JJ., dissented. Factor v. Laubenheimer, (U.S. 1933) 54 Sup. Ct. 191.

Recommended Citation

INTERNATIONAL LAW -EXTRADITION - CONSTRUCTION OF TREATY, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 417 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss3/21