Geoffrey Robertson: Assange’s Appeal Rests on ‘Judicial Authority’

Julian Assange’s next court appearance, on Wednesday, has nothing to do with sex or U.S. diplomatic cables or even with WikiLeaks. But it may make an important contribution to European law.

The United Kingdom Supreme Court will be considering the point I raised on his behalf when a Swedish prosecutor claimed to be a “judicial authority” empowered to issue a warrant to have him extradited from Britain to prison in Stockholm. My written argument began quite bluntly: “The notion that a prosecutor is a ‘judicial authority’ is a contradiction in terms.”
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The Supreme Court could reject his appeal on the ground that “judicial authority” has a wider meaning in European than in English law. Even a ruling in Assange’s favor would not prevent Sweden from extraditing him eventually, but it would have to change its procedures and then have his EAW issued by a court.

The current position, that anyone in the U.K. can be arrested, deported, denied bail, and then tried in secret—the procedure for dealing with sex-crime charges in Sweden—all on the say-so of a prejudiced foreign prosecutor, could strike some judges as oppressive.