Using International Human Rights Law and Machinery in Defending Borderless Crime Cases

This Essay focuses on four areas of international human rights law. The first area, the protection of attorneys' fees from forfeiture, is an issue of great concern in the United States, given the state of the law there. The next area, the application of the death penalty in international law, will also include arguments about the "death row phenomenon." The third area addressed is the use of international human rights law to overcome the rule of non-inquiry in extradition matters, a rule by which the judicial authority reviewing the propriety of extradition is barred from inquiry into the fairness of judicial procedures, prison conditions, or other potential issues of mistreatment in the requesting country at any stage in the proceedings. The final area, the use of abduction by government officials or their paid patrons as a means to bring suspects within a court's jurisdiction for criminal prosecution, is a process used by governments including the United States in lieu of extradition.