The European arrest warrant: Latvian experience of application

The European arrest warrant (EAW) is a request by a judicial authority in one of the Member States of the EU to arrest a person in another Member State and to surrender that person to the former state for the purpose of prosecuting or executing a custodial sentence or detention order. It was adopted by the Council of the European Union on 13 June 2002. EAW is based on the principle of mutual recognition to foreign judicial decisions and judgments in criminal matters, simplifies and speeds up the procedure of extradition. The EAW ensures a good balance between efficiency and strict guarantees that the arrested person's fundamental rights are respected. EAW introduced innovative elements as compared with traditional extradition procedure: strict time limits, simpler procedures, no political involvement, surrender of nationals, guarantees, and grounds for refusal. EAW has been adopted along with the Criminal Procedure Law of Republic of Latvia on 1 October 2005. This paper comments on implementation of the EAW in the EU Member States and features some aspects of Latvian experience.