"'Extradition' is the formal surrender of a person by a State to another State for prosecution or punishment." Extradition to or from the United States is a creature of treaty. The United States has extradition treaties with over a hundred of the nations of the world, although there are many with which the United States has no extradition treaty. International terrorism and drug trafficking have made extradition an increasingly important law enforcement tool. Although extradition as we know it is of relatively recent origins, its roots can be traced to antiquity. Scholars have identified procedures akin to extradition scattered throughout history dating as far back as the time of Moses. By 1776, a notion had evolved to the effect that "every state was obliged to grant extradition freely and without qualification or restriction, or to punish a wrongdoer itself," and the absence of intricate extradition procedures has been attributed to the predominance of this simple principle of international law. Whether by practice's failure to follow principle or by the natural evolution of the principle, modern extradition treaties and practices began to emerge in this country and elsewhere by the middle 18 th and early 19 th centuries. The first U.S. extradition treaty consisted of a single terse article in Jay's Treaty of 1794 with Great Britain. Its brevity notwithstanding, the article contained several of the basic features of contemporary extradition pacts: It is further agreed, that his Majesty and the United States, on mutual requisitions, by them respectively, or by their respective ministers or officers authorized to make the same, will deliver up to justice all persons, who, being charged with murder or forgery, committed within the jurisdiction of the other, provided that this shall only be done on such evidence of criminality, as, according to the laws of the place, where the fugitive or person so charged shall be found, would justify his apprehension and commitment for trial, if the offence had there been committed. The expense of such apprehension and delivery shall be borne and defrayed, by those who make the requisition and receive the fugitive. Since then, the United States has relied almost exclusively upon bilateral agreements as a basis for extradition. However, the United States has entered into several multilateral agreements that may also provide legal authority for extradition. Such agreements take two forms. One form is a multilateral agreement that exclusively concerns extradition. The United States is currently a party to two such agreements: the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Extradition, which apparently has never served as a basis for extradition, and the Extradition Agreement Between the United States and the European Union, which entered into force in February 2010. The provisions of the U.S.-EU extradition treaty are implemented via bilateral instruments concluded between the United States and each EU Member State. These instruments amend or replace any provisions contained in earlier treaties between the United States and individual EU Member States that conflict with the requirements of the multilateral agreement. The United States is also a party to several multilateral agreements that generally aim to deter and punish transnational criminal activity or serious human rights abuses, including by imposing an obligation upon signatories to prosecute or extradite persons who engage in specified conduct. Although these agreements are not themselves extradition treaties, they often contain provisions stating that specified acts shall be treated as extraditable offenses in any extradition treaty between parties. Extradition treaties are in the nature of a contract, and by operation of international law, [a] state party to an extradition treaty is obligated to comply with the request of another state party to that treaty to arrest and deliver a person duly shown to be sought by that state (a) for trial on a charge of having committed a crime covered by the treaty within the jurisdiction of the requesting state, or (b) for punishment after conviction of such a crime and flight from that state, provided that none of the grounds for refusal to extradite set forth in [the treaty] is applicable. Subject to a contrary treaty provision, federal law defines the mechanism by which the United States honors its extradition treaty obligations. Although some countries will extradite in the absence of an applicable treaty as a matter of comity, it was long believed that the United States could only grant an extradition request if it could claim coverage under an existing extradition treaty. Dicta in several court cases indicated that this requirement, however, was one of congressional choice rather than constitutional requirement. Congress appears to have acted upon the assumption that a treaty was not required for extradition in 1996, when it authorized the extradition of fugitive aliens at the behest of a nation with which the United States has no extradition treaty. That same year, Congress passed legislation to implement international agreements made between the United States and the International Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which were entered into as executive agreements rather than treaties. Pursuant to these agreements, the United States pledged to surrender to the requesting tribunal any person found within its territory who had been charged with or found guilty by the tribunal of an offense. The constitutional vitality of these efforts was put to the test shortly thereafter when the United States attempted to surrender a resident alien to the International Tribunal for Rwanda. Initially, a federal magistrate judge for the Southern District of Texas ruled that constitutional separation of powers requirements precluded extradition in the absence of a treaty. The government subsequently filed another request for surrender with the district court, and the presiding judge certified the request, holding that an extradition could be effectuated pursuant to either a treaty or an authorizing statute. In a 2-1 panel decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this ruling, concluding that "although some authorization by law is necessary for the Executive to extradite, neither the Constitution's text nor … [relevant jurisprudence] require that the authorization come in the form of a treaty." The Supreme Court subsequently declined a petition for writ of certiorari to review the appellate court's ruling. A question has occasionally arisen over whether an extradition treaty with a colonial power continues to apply to a former colony that has become independent, or whether an extradition treaty with a prior State remains in effect with its successor. Although the United States periodically renegotiates replacements or supplements for existing treaties to make contemporary adjustments, the United States has a number of treaties that pre-date the dissolution of a colonial bond or some other adjustment in governmental status. Fugitives in these situations have sometimes contested extradition on the grounds that the United States has no valid extradition treaty with the successor government that asks that they be handed over for prosecution. These efforts are generally unsuccessful since successor governments have ordinarily assumed the extradition treaty obligations negotiated by their predecessors. Extradition is generally limited to crimes identified in the treaty. Early treaties often recite a list of the specific extraditable crimes. Jay's Treaty mentions only murder and forgery; the inventory in the 1852 treaty with Prussia included eight others; and the 1974 treaty between the United States and Denmark identified several dozen extradition offenses: 1. Murder; voluntary manslaughter; assault with intent to commit murder. 2. Aggravated injury or assault; injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. 3. Unlawful throwing or application of any corrosive or injurious substances upon the person of another. 4. Rape; indecent assault; sodomy accompanied by use of force or threat; sexual intercourse and other unlawful sexual relations with or upon children under the age specified by the laws of both the requesting and the requested States. 5. Unlawful abortion. 6. Procuration; inciting or assisting a person under 21 years of age or at the time ignorant of the purpose in order that such person shall carry on sexual immorality as a profession abroad or shall be used for such immoral purpose; promoting of sexual immorality by acting as an intermediary repeatedly or for the purpose of gain; profiting from the activities of any person carrying on sexual immorality as a profession. 7. Kidnapping; child stealing; abduction; false imprisonment. 8. Robbery; assault with intent to rob. 9. Burglary. 10. Larceny. 11. Embezzlement. 12. Obtaining property, money or valuable securities: by false pretenses or by threat or force, by defrauding any governmental body, the public or any person by deceit, falsehood, use of the mails or other means of communication in connection with schemes intended to deceive or defraud, or by any other fraudulent means. 13. Bribery, including soliciting, offering and accepting. 14. Extortion. 15. Receiving or transporting any money, valuable securities or other property knowing the same to have been unlawfully obtained. 16. Fraud by a bailee, banker, agent, factor, trustee, executor, administrator or by a director or officer of any company. 17. An offense against the laws relating to counterfeiting or forgery. 18. False statements made before a court or to a government agency or official, including under United States law perjury and subornation of perjury. 19. Arson. 20. An offense against any law relating to the protection of the life or health of persons from: a shortage of drinking water; poisoned, contaminated, unsafe or unwholesome drinking water, substance or products. 21. Any act done with intent to endanger the safety of any person traveling upon a railway, or in any aircraft or vessel or bus or other means of transportation, or any act which impairs the safe operation of such means of transportation. 22. Piracy; mutiny or revolt on board an aircraft against the authority of the commander of such aircraft; any seizure or exercise of control, by force or violence or threat of force or violence, of an aircraft. 23. An offense against the laws relating to damage to property. 24. a.