As recently as the early 1970s, the United States typically made and received only 40 requests for international extradition per year. As the world has become “flatter”, there has been a concomitant explosion in transnational criminal activity to which the United States has had to respond. In 2008 alone, 589 people were extradited to it and many others extradited by it. The treatise is designed for prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and academics. Written by the former Department of Justice official responsible for implementation of United States extradition statutes and treaties as it began designing the mechanisms to cope with the explosion of transnational criminal activity, it analyzes in detail the legal aspects of, and operation under, those statutes and treaties. Additional titles by Michael Abbell include: • International Prisoner Transfer 2010 • Obtaining Evidence Abroad in Criminal Cases 2010 This is the final Edition, there will be no further updates for this series.

"Extradition" is the formal surrender of a person by a state to another state for prosecution or punishment. Extradition to or from the United States is a creature of treaty. The United States has extradition treaties with over a hundred of the nations of the world, although they are many with whom it has no extradition treaty. International terrorism and drug trafficking have made extradition an increasingly important law enforcement tool. This book is a review of the adjustments made in recent treaties to accommodate American law enforcement interests, and then a nutshell overview of the federal law governing foreign requests to extradite a fugitive found in this country and a United States request for extradition of a fugitive found in a foreign country.