Extradition clauses in multilateral international treaties: international legal aspects

The article focuses upon the legal sense of extradition clauses in multilateral criminal law treaties. The methodology of the article embraces both general methods, such as analysis and synthesis, and specific ones, such as comparative, statistical, and linguistic methods. A multi-pronged evaluation of the clause is performed, with particular scrutiny given to the different kinds of authentic English- and Russian-language wording intrinsic to this type of treaty. Such clauses are prone to have a direct effect and are subject to implementation by state parties to an international treaty, along with its substantive norms. In some cases, an extradition clause is considered a substitute for a special extradition treaty, notwithstanding the deficiency of the presumption of inclusion of crimes criminalized by the conventions in bilateral extradition treaties. Irrespective of the salient virtues inherent in such clauses (for instance, the absence of the necessity to elaborate and conclude a special extradition treaty; the procurement of enforcing substantive norms; the existence of legal mechanisms provided for in such conventions by dint of which state parties are entitled to resort to international judicial organs, in case of any dispute concerning the application or interpretation of a treaty), the shortcomings, among which are a narrow range of crimes to which the clause relates, and a set of legal hindrances connected with the implementation process, are unequivocal.