Specialty Rule
The principle that a person extradited may only be prosecuted for the offence(s) for which extradition was granted, unless the requesting state obtains consent for additional charges.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
What UK extradition practitioners generally call the 'specialty rule' appears in the Extradition Act 2003 under the heading 'Speciality'. Section 95 provides a jurisdictional safeguard for extraditions to category 2 territories: 'The Secretary of State must not order a person's extradition to a category 2 territory if there are no speciality arrangements with the category 2 territory.' The rule exists to stop a requesting state using an extradition request for one offence as a pretext to get custody of a person and then prosecute them for something else entirely once they are within its jurisdiction.
Section 95(3) defines when speciality arrangements exist: only where, under the law of the requesting territory or arrangements it has made with the UK, a person extradited 'may be dealt with in the territory for an offence committed before his extradition only if' either the offence falls within a defined list in section 95(4), or the person is first given an opportunity to leave the territory. The permitted offences in section 95(4) include the offence for which extradition was actually granted, an extradition offence disclosed by the same facts, an offence the Secretary of State consents to the person being dealt with for, and an offence the person has themselves waived their speciality protection for.
The rule can therefore be waived, either by the individual (who may consent to extradition and give up speciality protection under section 127) or, after extradition, by further consent obtained from the Secretary of State for additional charges. This flexibility means speciality operates less as an absolute bar and more as a default protection that channels how and when a requesting state can broaden the scope of prosecution once extradition has been granted.
Example
If a person is extradited from the UK to face fraud charges, the requesting state cannot then prosecute them for an unrelated drugs offence discovered after their arrival, unless it first obtains the UK Secretary of State's consent to widen the charges under section 95(4)(c).
Related terms
Official sources
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