17 May 2012
R v OB [2012] EWCA Crim 67, [2012] All ER (D) 67 (May)
It was established law that the scope of the United States Extradition Treaty 2003 (the treaty) was confined to criminal offences and that civil contempt was not a criminal offence. The rule of specialty embodied in art 18 of the treaty had nothing to do with civil matters. That civil contempt might in fact result in punishment by way of committal to prison did not make it any the less a civil matter.
