The European Convention on Extradition Order 2001

Reservations and Declarations

Article 1

Extradition shall not be granted if the person sought would be tried in the requesting State by a tribunal which does not assure the fundamental procedural guarantees and the protection of the rights of the defence or by a tribunal created for that person’s particular case or if extradition is requested for the enforcement of a sentence or detention order imposed by such a tribunal.

Extradition may be refused if surrender is likely to have consequences of any exceptional gravity for the person sought, particularly by reason of his age or state of health.

Article 2

Concerning persons prosecuted, extradition shall only be granted in respect of offences which under French law and under the law of the requesting State, are punishable by deprivation of liberty or by a detention order for a maximum period of at least two years.

With regard to punishments which are more severe than deprivation of liberty or detention orders, extradition may be refused if these punishments or detention orders are not provided for in the scale of punishments applicable in France.

Article 3

France reserves the right, in the light of the individual circumstances of each case, to appreciate if the taking or attempted taking of the life of a Head of State or a member of his family is to be deemed or not a political offence.

Article 5

France declares that for offences in connection with taxes, duties, customs and exchange, extradition shall be granted to the requesting State if it has been so decided by a simple exchange of letters in each category of case.

Article 6

Extradition shall be refused when the person sought had French nationality at the time of the alleged offence.

Article 14

France will require that any description of an offence relates to the same facts as those for which extradition was granted and that this new description does not imply the application of a penalty for which extradition could be refused.

Article 16

In the case of a request for provisional arrest, France shall require a short memorandum of the facts alleged against the person sought.

Article 21

France reserves the right not to grant transit except on the same conditions as those on which it grants extradition.

Article 23

France declares that it will request a translation of the requests for extradition and documents annexed thereto into one of the official languages of the Council of Europe and that it chooses French.

Article 27

The Government of the French Republic declares that, with respect to France, the Convention applies to the European and overseas departments of the Republic.