[673] The full text of these treaties is printed by Clarke, as well as Biron and Chalmers. Not to be confounded with extradition of criminals to foreign States is extradition within the British Empire from one part of the British dominions to another. This matter is regulated by the Fugitive Offenders Act, 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 169).
Such States as possess no extradition laws and whose written Constitution does not mention the matter, leave it to their Governments to conclude extradition treaties according to their discretion. And in these countries the Governments are competent to extradite an individual even if no extradition treaty exists.
Object of Extradition.
§ 330. Since extradition is the delivery of an incriminated individual to the State on whose territory he has committed a crime by the State on whose territory he is for the time staying, the object of extradition can be any individual, whether he is a subject of the prosecuting State, or of the State which is required to extradite him, or of a third State. Many States, however, as France and most other States of the European continent, have adopted the principle never to extradite one of their subjects to a foreign State, but themselves to punish subjects of their own for grave crimes committed abroad. Other States, as Great Britain and the United States, have not adopted this principle, and do extradite such of their subjects as have committed a grave crime abroad. Thus Great Britain surrendered in 1879 to Austria, where he was convicted and hanged,[674] one Tourville, a British subject, who, after having murdered his wife in the Tyrol, had fled home to England. And it must be emphasised that the object of extradition is an individual who has committed a crime abroad, whether or not he was during the commission of the criminal act physically present on the territory of the State where the crime was committed. Thus, in 1884, Great Britain surrendered one Nillins to Germany, who, by sending from Southampton forged bills of exchange to a merchant in Germany as payment for goods ordered, was considered to have committed forgery and to have obtained goods by false pretences in Germany.[675]
[674] This case is all the more remarkable, as (see 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, § 9) the criminal law of England extends over murder and manslaughter committed abroad by English subjects, and as, according to article 3 of the extradition treaty of 1873 between England and Austria-Hungary, the contracting parties are in no case under obligation to extradite their own subjects.
[675] See Clarke, op. cit. pp. 177 and 262, who, however, disapproves of this surrender.
A conflict between International and Municipal Law arises if a certain individual must be extradited according to an extradition treaty, but cannot be extradited according to the Municipal Law of the State from which extradition is demanded. Thus in the case of Salvatore Paladini,[676] whose extradition was demanded by the United States of America from the Italian Government in 1888 for having passed counterfeit money, Italian Municipal Law, which prohibits the extradition of an Italian citizen, came into conflict with article 1 of the Extradition Treaty of 1868 between Italy and the United States which stipulates extradition of criminals without exempting nationals. For this reason Italy refused to extradite Paladini. It is noteworthy that the United States, although they do not any longer press for extradition of Italian subjects who, after having committed a crime in the United States have returned to Italy, nevertheless consider themselves bound by the above-mentioned treaty of 1868 to extradite to Italy such American subjects as have committed a crime in Italy. Therefore, when in 1910 the Italian Government demanded from the United States extradition of one Porter Charlton,[677] an American citizen, for having committed a murder in Italy, extradition was granted.
[676] See Moore, IV. § 594, pp. 290-297.
[677] See A.J. V. (1911), pp. 182-191.
Extraditable Crimes.