What is left of the political crime in contemporary International Law?

Abstract

Recent progress in the fight against terrorism seems to be the reason of the decline of political crimes invocation in the field of the extradition and in the International Refugee Law. The prohibition of the exception of political crime in extradition and terrorism treaties supposes the rejection of any type of justification, including the political ones, for acts qualified as terrorists. However, the doubts that States maintain about the notion and the universal scope of the contemporary incrimination of the terrorism and the diverse practice of the States in front of the invocation of political crimes, as well as recent cases such as Snowden’s in the United States, Battisti’s in Brazil or Falciani’s in Spain, suggest that the notion of political crime could be still in force and in some cases necessary.