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Define dual criminality and speciality.

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Dual criminality protects the \textbf{decision to extradite}. Speciality protects the \textbf{treatment after extradition}. Both prevent abuse and preserve sovereignty.
Updated On: Jul 10, 2026
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Approach Solution - 1

Dual criminality and speciality answer two different questions in extradition law, and it helps to keep them apart by asking when each one applies.

Dual criminality applies before surrender. It asks whether the act for which extradition is sought is a crime in both India and the country asking for the fugitive. The name of the offence can differ across the two legal systems, a charge called something else abroad need not carry the same label here, but the actual conduct, the acts done and the harm caused, has to amount to an offence under Indian law as well. If it does not, India has no basis to hand the person over, since that would mean punishing conduct that is not a crime at home.

Speciality applies after surrender. Once India has extradited someone for a named offence, the requesting country cannot quietly widen the net and prosecute that person for something else it had in mind all along. The person can be tried, punished or held only for the offence stated in the extradition request, unless India agrees to extra charges or the person stays on in that country of their own free will beyond the period allowed for leaving.

So dual criminality is a filter on whether extradition can happen at all, and speciality is a limit on what the requesting state can do once it has happened. \(\text{Dual criminality} \to \text{gate before surrender}, \ \text{Speciality} \to \text{limit after surrender}\)
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Approach Solution -2

Another way to keep dual criminality and speciality straight is to ask not what each rule says, but whom each rule is protecting.

Dual criminality protects the requested state's own legal order.
If India extradited people for conduct that is not a crime here, it would effectively be enforcing a foreign penal code inside its own borders, something no state accepts. The rule stops India's extradition machinery from being used to punish acts that Indian law itself treats as lawful or morally neutral. This safeguard is about sovereignty and consistency of law, not really about the individual fugitive.

Speciality protects the individual who has already been surrendered.
Once someone is handed over, they are, in a real sense, at the mercy of the requesting state's justice system with no further say from India. Speciality is the guarantee that stops that state from using the extradition as a general ticket to prosecute the person for anything it wants. The trial can proceed only on the offence named in the request, unless India agrees otherwise or the person freely chooses to stay on.

Putting the two side by side.
One rule guards the state that gives up jurisdiction over the offence, checking that it is not being made to enforce a foreign crime. The other rule guards the person who is given up, checking that surrender is not misused as a blank cheque for prosecution.

So dual criminality is about protecting a legal system, and speciality is about protecting a person. \[ \boxed{\text{Dual criminality safeguards the requested state's law; speciality safeguards the extradited individual.}} \]

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