Autism spectrum disorder and suitability for extradition: Love v the Government of the United States [2018] 1 WLR 2889; [2018] EWHC 172 (Admin) per Burnett LCJ and Ouseley J.

Applications for extradition of persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have the potential to raise complex issues in relation to mental health experts' evaluation of the impact of removal of a person from their own country's sources of familial support to another country's custodial environment. These issues were traversed at length in relation to the risks posed by applications for extradition of the English computer hacker, Gary McKinnon, which resulted in executive intervention to enable him to remain in the United Kingdom and in important legislative amendments, by way of the institution of a 'forum bar'. In 2018 the Court of Appeal in Love v The Government of the United States [2018] 1 WLR 2889; [2018] EWHC 172 (Admin) delivered a ground-breaking judgment rejecting the extradition of another computer hacker, Lauri Love, who suffered from ASD and other comorbidities. The decision is an important precedent in its interpretation of the new forum bar provisions, the way in which forensic mental health evidence was adduced in the context of ASD symptomatology and evaluated by the court, and the finding that removal of Mr Love to the United States penal system would be unacceptably oppressive.