Professor Neil Boister is the 2015 recipient of the New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Scholarship.

Neil Boister

The Waikato University Law Professor's research will investigate the simplification of New Zealand's law of extradition.

The aim of the project, Professor Boister says, is to analyse this country's extradition law within the context of the global trend towards simplification of the conditions for a process of extradition.

"The scope of the project will include the existing Extradition Act 1999 and reform of the law proposed by the Law Commission in Extradition and Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (EP37, 2 December 2014).

"The project will critically evaluate New Zealand's extradition law in light of both New Zealand's international commitments to co-operate in extradition and selected extradition regimes that have been developed at a regional and global level.

"The objective of the project is to determine whether New Zealand's extradition law provides an acceptable basis for the extradition of individuals to and from New Zealand.

"The yardsticks against which acceptability will be measured are the necessity for effective international co-operation against crime, balanced against the necessity of respecting the human rights of individuals subject to the extradition process," he says.

Professor Boister gained his PhD from Nottingham University for his thesis The Suppression of Illicit Drugs Through International Law.

His research interests lie in the intersection between the fields of criminal law and international law.