Brexit and the application of the specialty rule to persons previously surrendered on the basis of the European arrest warrant

Abstract

Even before UK left the EU, the complications that Brexit would cause in the area of international cooperation in criminal matters were noted. The possible problems were to be eliminated by the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (2019/C 384 I/01). Despite the fact that this agreement contains an extensive regulation in respect to cooperation in criminal matters, it did not solve all the problems. The answer to the question how to proceed if there are grounds to start the criminal proceedings against a person who has been surrendered by the UK to Poland prior to Brexit on the grounds of EAW, in particular, to what extent such person is protected by the specialty rule, seems to be not entirely clear