Global Litigator: The Interplay Between the Executive and Judicial Branches in Extradition

Download a printable PDF of this article (membership required).

As Edward Snowden bides his time living in temporary asylum in Russia, speculation abounds worldwide as to whether he will have his day in a U.S. court. Snowden has been charged by a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of Virginia with theft of government property (18 U.S.C. § 641), unauthorized use of national defense information (18 U.S.C. § 793(d)), and willful communication of classified information and intelligence communications to an unauthorized person (18 U.S.C. § 798(a)(3)). On June 14, 2013, the complaint was filed and transmitted, along with a provisional arrest warrant asking the Hong Kong authorities to detain Snowden while the extradition request was being processed, by the United States to Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China that has its own extradition treaty with the United States. Snowden had resided in Hong Kong since May 20, 2013.