25
SOERING v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
language of Article 3 (art. 3) intolerably to hold that by surrendering a
fugitive criminal the extraditing State has "subjected" him to any treatment
or punishment that he will receive following conviction and sentence in the
receiving State. Further arguments advanced against the approach of the
Commission were that it interferes with international treaty rights; it leads to
a conflict with the norms of international judicial process, in that it in effect
involves adjudication on the internal affairs of foreign States not Parties to
the Convention or to the proceedings before the Convention institutions; it
entails grave difficulties of evaluation and proof in requiring the
examination of alien systems of law and of conditions in foreign States; the
practice of national courts and the international community cannot
reasonably be invoked to support it; it causes a serious risk of harm in the
Contracting State which is obliged to harbour the protected person, and
leaves criminals untried, at large and unpunished.
In the alternative, the United Kingdom Government submitted that the
application of Article 3 (art. 3) in extradition cases should be limited to
those occasions in which the treatment or punishment abroad is certain,
imminent and serious. In their view, the fact that by definition the matters
complained of are only anticipated, together with the common and
legitimate interest of all States in bringing fugitive criminals to justice,
requires a very high degree of risk, proved beyond reasonable doubt, that illtreatment will actually occur.
84. The Court will approach the matter on the basis of the following
considerations.
85. As results from Article 5 § 1 (f) (art. 5-1-f), which permits "the
lawful ... detention of a person against whom action is being taken with a
view to ... extradition", no right not to be extradited is as such protected by
the Convention. Nevertheless, in so far as a measure of extradition has
consequences adversely affecting the enjoyment of a Convention right, it
may, assuming that the consequences are not too remote, attract the
obligations of a Contracting State under the relevant Convention guarantee
(see, mutatis mutandis, the Abdulaziz, Cabales and Balkandali judgment of
25 May 1985, Series A no. 94, pp. 31-32, §§ 59-60 - in relation to rights in
the field of immigration). What is at issue in the present case is whether
Article 3 (art. 3) can be applicable when the adverse consequences of
extradition are, or may be, suffered outside the jurisdiction of the extraditing
State as a result of treatment or punishment administered in the receiving
State.
86. Article 1 (art. 1) of the Convention, which provides that "the High
Contracting Parties shall secure to everyone within their jurisdiction the
rights and freedoms defined in Section I", sets a limit, notably territorial, on
the reach of the Convention. In particular, the engagement undertaken by a
Contracting State is confined to "securing" ("reconnaître" in the French text)
the listed rights and freedoms to persons within its own "jurisdiction".