Legal Regulation of Extradition of Persons Who Have Committed a Crime in the Republic of Korea

The article is devoted to the problems of extradition in the Republic of Korea (hereinafter RK, the Republic). Currently, the institution of extradition of criminals is regulated by the Extradition act of 2021. The provisions of the Law are supplemented by the Rules of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea on extradition procedures. In cases directly specified in the Law, the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic also apply. In addition, the Republic participates in the European Convention on Extradition and in bilateral treaties with more than 30 countries. In addition, multilateral conventions on combating international criminal acts (corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking, etc.), to which Korea is a party, have extradition provisions. The objectives of the study are to analyze the legislation and international treaties of the Republic of Korea on extradition, as well as the practice of their application. The author applies the methods of formal logic and comparative law, as well as other methods of scientific knowledge. The article analyzes in detail the Korean legislation on the extradition procedure. As a result, the following conclusions were made. During the extradition process, several government bodies interact – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the prosecutor’s office, and the court. This state of affairs is due to the distribution of competence in the administrative system of the Republic of Korea and the relative lack of independence of the Korean prosecutor’s office, which is organizationally subordinate to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic. Extradition issues fall within the competence of the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office and the Seoul High Court – the second link in the law enforcement system of the Republic. The author characterizes the norms of international treaties of Korea on extradition, which contain special provisions and provide additional guarantees to extradited persons. Much attention is paid to extradition verification and the grounds for refusal of extradition.