Ministry of Justice, Republic of Lithuania v Bucnys (Antonov intervening); Sakalis v Ministry of Justice, Republic of Lithuania (Same intervening); Lavrov v Ministry of Justice, Estonia (Same intervening): [2013] UKSC 71;   [2013] WLR (D)  446

‘A European arrest warrant issued by a government ministry in respect of a convicted person with a view to his or her arrest and extradition could be regarded as issued by a judicial authority for the purposes of Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA— and Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003 which gave effect to it in the United Kingdom— if the ministry had only issued the warrant at the request of and by way of endorsement of a decision that the issue of such a warrant was appropriate made by the court responsible for the sentence or some other person or body properly regarded as a judicial authority responsible for its execution. A ministry which had power to issue an European arrest warrant of its own motion and had done so, or which had issued a warrant at the request of a non-judicial authority, including an executive agency such as a prison department, could not be regarded as a judicial authority for those purposes.’

WLR Daily, 20th November 2013

Source: www.iclr.co.uk