Ron Albertson Jr., age 14, of Santa Ross, Calif., for his question:

JUST WHAT IS EXTRADITION?

Extradition in law is the surrender by one sovereign power to another of a fugitive from justice. A nation extradites when it gives up a prisoner to another nation.

Between nations, the right of one power to demand of another the extradition of a fugitive accused of crime, and the duty of the country in which the fugitive has found asylum to surrender this person, exist only when created by treaty.

Because of the great differences between the political systems and penal codes of various nations, most nations have given definite expression in treaties to their mutual obligations regarding extradition.

The conventions between the United States and Great Britain in 1842, 1889 and 1900 enumerate what offenses two leading nations consider extraditable. The general rule is that extraditable crimes must be those commonly recognized by civilized nations as "malum in se" (acts criminal by their very nature) and not merely "malum prohibitum" (acts made crimes by statue or an enactment made by a legislature). The extraditable crimes must be spelled out clearly in the extradition treaty.

It is an almost universal rule that a country will not surrender its own citizens to a foreign power, and it is generally regarded as an abuse of the principal of extradition for a nation to secure the surrender of a criminal for a extraditable offense and then to punish this person for an offense not included in the treaty.

The right of extradition between the states of the U.S. is the laid down in the Constitution and in the federal law of February 12, 1793. The right of inter state extradition can be exercised only by the executive authorities of one state at the request of another.

To extradite, the governor of the state from which the fugitive has fled must make a request to the governor of the asylum state.

The requisition from one governor to another must be accompanied by an indictment or an affidavit made before a magistrate, charging the person sought with a crime. The power and duty of determining whether the requisition shows sufficient cause to warrant extradition of the person demanded rests on the governor of the asylum state.

The governor receiving the requisition may grant a hearing, although as a matter of law the accused is not entitled to such hearing.

Because the purpose of extradition is to prevent the successful escape from a state of any person who has been accused of crime, the only extraditable offenses are those that are punishable by law in the state in which they were committed.

Here's what Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution of the U. S. says:

"A person charged in any state with treason, felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the Crime."