The UK Government proposed in February 2020 that sentenced prisoner transfers with EU member states should continue after Brexit, but using a more ‘effective’ process than the existing CoE convention. The article analyses, with a particular focus on the Irish-UK CTA, the significance of continued UK human rights compliance for the achievement of this objective and the interrelationship of this issue with extradition/surrender (including the surrender of fugitive prisoners). It is concluded that Brexit has most probably raised the level of formal and institutional human rights compliance (including legal aid/assistance and the direct enforcement of prisoners’ rights in domestic courts) required from the UK for criminal justice cooperation with EU member states. Entering into such undertakings would not assist criminal impunity or the evasion of lawfully imposed penalties. Such undertakings, however, cannot help to resolve many problems inherent in prisoner transfer within the EU. The creation of a truly effective and rehabilitative transfer system would require (a) constructive UK Government participation in inter-governmental (including the UK devolved governments)/EU arrangements capable of incrementally resolving or effectively mitigating criminal justice cooperation problems and (b) acceptance at Westminster that this aspect of post-Brexit readjustment is likely to be intermittent and of long-duration.

英国政府于2020年2月提议，应在英国退欧后继续对与欧盟成员国进行的囚犯移交判处刑罚，但采用比现有的《欧洲法院公约》更为“有效”的程序。这篇文章分析了英国－英国的CTA，尤其是英国继续遵守人权对于实现这一目标的重要性，以及该问题与引渡/投降（包括投降逃犯）之间的相互关系。结论是，英国脱欧最有可能提高了英国与欧盟成员国进行刑事司法合作所需的正规和机构性人权合规水平（包括法律援助/援助以及国内法院对囚犯权利的直接执行）。进行此类承诺不会助长刑事有罪不罚或逃避合法施加的惩罚。但是，这样的承诺无助于解决欧盟内部囚犯转移的许多固有问题。建立真正有效和恢复原状的转让制度将需要（a）英国政府建设性地参与政府间组织（包括英国下放政府）/欧盟安排，这些安排应能够逐步解决或有效缓解刑事司法合作问题，以及（b）接受威斯敏斯特（Westminster）认为，英国退欧后调整的这一方面可能是断断续续的，而且是长期的。