Germany's highest court will examine the European Union's right to issue arrest warrants and also its extradition regulations.
Those rights and regulations have been criticized in Germany ever since they became effective last year, and now will be reviewed by the high court, the Deutsche Welle reported Wednesday.
The regulations are designed to simplify extradition procedures for suspected criminals within the European Union. But, the newspaper said, not many EU members are happy about it, with many preferring to retain elements of the old procedure.
Money laundering and counterfeiting are some of the crimes the EU has been trying to tackle. Under the new regulations, when a suspected crime is included on a so-called "positive list of criminal areas," the criminal can be extradited.
But Germans say the list is too vague. "For example: what exactly does 'sabotage' mean?" said law professor Helmut Satzger at the University of Munich. "We don't have a provision on the books to deal with sabotage in German law." The same is true for racism and xenophobia, he said.
The new regulations also do not allow an appeal of an EU ruling in the home country.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
