Kate Nowicki , Acas Director of Dispute Resolution

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This may range from mere fractious dissent (Regina v. Governor of Brixton Prison, ex p. Koczynski [1955] 1 Q.B. 540) to a shooting war (In re Castioni, [1891] 1 Q.B. 149), depending on the jurisdiction. Under the traditional Anglo-American test, extradition will only be denied if the acts are “committed during the progress of actual hostilities between contending forces” and are “closely identified” with the uprising “in an unsuccessful effort to suppress it” (In re Ezeta, 62 F. 972, 997, 1002 (N.D.Cal. 1894)). The “incidence” test has two components – the uprising requirement and the nexus requirement. The uprising component “makes the whatsapp number list exception applicable only when a certain level of violence exists and when those engaged in that violence are seeking to accomplish a particular objective” (Quinn at 807).

The nexus component means the offense must occur in the context of an uprising and be limited by the geographic confines of the uprising, contemporaneous with the uprising and causally or ideologically related to the uprising. This is a high standard, which most whistleblowers would be unable to meet. If there is not an ongoing uprising taking place in the requesting state, then the whistleblower would fail the “incidence” test and be extradited for the relative political offense, frustrating the purpose of the political offense exception.