International Insights In Criminal Law - Episode 1 Interpol and Red Notices

The CPS’s June 2025 guidance on the forum bar marks a decisive narrowing of the circumstances in which prosecutor’s belief statements may be issued. Such statements (by which a domestic prosecutor expresses the view that the UK is not the most appropriate jurisdiction for prosecution) have often featured in litigation under sections 19B and 83A of the Extradition Act 2003.

As global crime evolves and political landscapes shift, the UK’s legal frameworks for international cooperation and extradition are showing their age. In a new blog, Rebecca Niblock explores the  Criminal Law Reform Now Network (CLRNN) Scoping Review   (June 2025) which makes a compelling case: the time for reform is now.

We recently wrote about the history and future of INTERPOL as it marked its 100^th anniversary at the end of 2023. We observed then that there appears to be an increasing appetite for change at the agency, with some notable reforms taking place over the past decade.

This blog is part two of a two-part blog series. In part one we discussed the forum bar to extradition and the relevant case law of extradition proceedings, following a request from the USA to the UK, in which the forum bar has been successfully argued.

As INTERPOL celebrates a milestone anniversary in 2023, we consider some of the underlying issues with the Red Notice system and what this means for the next 100 years.

A European court recently blocked the extradition of an alleged drug dealer due to concerns over the protection of his human rights in the requesting state. Perhaps not an unusual decision at first glance. But what makes this case stand out is that the requesting state was the United Kingdom.

In October 2022, INTERPOL announced the creation of its Metaverse “twin” – a virtual Headquarters that would, as a first step, serve as an immersive training space for law enforcement professionals. Almost 10 months later INTERPOL and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) unveiled their joint “Toolkit for Responsible AI Innovation in Law Enforcement” (the “Toolkit”), a guide for law enforcement professionals worldwide on developing and using AI responsibly.

This blog post examines the issue of how having more than one citizenship impacts asylum claims in the UK.

In an encouraging step towards improving transparency around Red Notices and diffusions, INTERPOL has published important data showing the number of alerts that were issued each year between 2017 and 2021 and how many INTERPOL deleted or refused to issue during the same period.

When is an extradition decision binding? Recent case law on double jeopardy as a de-fence against extradition

This quarterly international criminal law update provides a summary of the news stories in the period April – June 2022. The relevance of international criminal law continues to be highlighted by the war in Ukraine. As events have unfolded, we have covered relevant developments below along with a number of other international law news stories.

We are delighted to present, as a guest blog, the thoughts and views of Dr Valentyn Gvozdiy, managing partner of Golaw in Kyiv. Dr Gvozdiy outlines the significant changes to criminal procedure that have been heralded by the Russian invasion of his country and the subsequent adoption of martial law.

On Thursday 5 May, Kingsley Napley hosted the 4^th annual Cross-Border Criminal Law Conference, which focused on individual and corporate accountability for international crimes.

Whilst it is anticipated that prosecutions under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (‘the Act’) will be exceptionally rare, the criminal sanctions set out in it are explicitly framed to create a “sufficiently robust deterrent to ensure compliance.” The provisions punish corporates and individual officers who connive or consent to commit an offence, as well as individual officers who are negligent (s.36). In addition, they are also extra-territorial (s.52), meaning that the scope of liability is particularly wide-ranging.

The Prime Minister recently committed the UK’s support to achieving justice in respect of the war crimes allegations arising out of the Ukraine conflict. The conflict and associated allegations raise questions over the UK’s commitment and ability to bring prosecutions under the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction”. Universal jurisdiction describes the jurisdiction that is available in the national courts of many countries to prosecute individuals for the most serious international crimes, even if those crimes occurred abroad and neither the defendants nor victims have any connection to that country. Why only a few such prosecutions have taken place in the UK will be the topic of one of two panel discussions at Kingsley Napley’s Cross Border Criminal Law Conference on 5 May 2022.

This quarterly international criminal law update provides a summary of the news stories in the period January – March 2022. The relevance of international criminal law has been tragically highlighted by the current events in the Ukraine. This fast moving event has been covered below, along with a number of other international criminal law updates.

On 28 February 2022, the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel announced to parliament that the UK would be ‘leading all international efforts’ to suspend Russia’s membership of INTERPOL.  

This came moments before the Ukrainian minister of internal affairs, Denis Monastyrsky, made a public statement demanding Russia’s immediate expulsion from the organisation for “violating its basic principles and massive misuse of tools and services to cover up its crimes and persecute political enemies, particularly in Ukraine.”

On 16 November the CJEU delivered its judgment following the publication of the Advocate General’s opinion on the UK-Ireland extradition questions which we wrote about here. The decision concerned the mechanisms for extradition to the UK from Ireland in two scenarios (1) under the terms of the withdrawal agreement from 1 February to 31 December 2020 and (2) under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (“TCA”) from 1 January 2021.

The judgment confirms the AG’s Opinion that Ireland is bound by the withdrawal agreement and the TCA (“the agreements”) in respect of extradition arrangements with the UK and accordingly extradition from Ireland to the UK post-Brexit will continue under those terms.

On 9 November 2021 Advocate General Kokott handed down her opinion in respect of Case C-479/21 concerning Mr Sn and Mr Sd following a reference from the Irish Supreme Court which was made on 3 August 2021. Her opinion stated that the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement and TCA which ensure the continuation of the European arrest warrant regime in respect of warrants issued by the United Kingdom (“UK”) during the transition period are binding on Ireland.

Rebecca Niblock and Edward Grange examine the key changes & similarities to extradition law following Brexit. The introduction of new surrender arrangements under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Changes effected under the Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Act 2020.