Extradition

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of transferring a person accused of a crime from one jurisdiction to another for legal action is known as this formality
2. The formal procedure that involves one jurisdiction handing over an individual charged with a crime to another jurisdiction for trial is referred to as this legal action
3. This legal process allows for a person wanted for a crime to be surrendered by one authority to another for prosecution

Etymology: Extradition is built from Latin "ex-", meaning "out of" or "from", and "traditio", a noun from "tradere", "to hand over" or "to deliver". The Latin sense is simply transfer: giving something from one hand to another. The word reached English through French "extradition", which kept that plain sense of delivering a person across a boundary. The same Latin verb gives English "tradition", which is a useful surprise. Something handed down through generations was, at root, something passed from one person to another, and the two words share a single act of handing over. Extradition narrows that act to a legal one, where a state surrenders a suspect to another state's authority.

Synonyms: surrender, delivery, release, forfeiture, transfer