Read the law lords' full judgment

Ian Norris, the retired British businessman, has won a significant victory in the House of Lords today but could still be sent for trial in the US, where he is wanted on charges of price-fixing.

Five law lords unanimously ruled that price-fixing was not a criminal act in England at the time it is said to have occured. Under the current extradition rules, a British citizen can only be extradited to the US if the offence they are accused of was a crime in both jurisdictions at the time it was committed.

However, the law lords said that a separate, ancilliary charge against Mr Norris — that he tampered with documents to cover up evidence — may still constitute an extraditable offence.

The case will now be sent back to a magistrate's court, where a judge will need to decide whether the US extradition request remains "proportionate" in light of the Lords ruling.

In a substantial boost for Mr Norris' case, the law lords said that extraditing him on charges of obstructing justice alone may be disproportionate - because it could be a breach of his human rights.

Howver the law lords did not rule on the specific circumstances of Mr Norris' case, which will be decided at a separate hearing.

Mr Norris is free to remain in the UK until a magistrate's court hears his case. No hearing has been fixed.

Speaking outside the House of Lords this morning, Mr Norris said: "The ruling has at last given some light at the end of the tunnel, in what has been a very unfair and difficult situation for my family and me.

"Even with the decision today, I still remain deeply concerned about the one-sided extradition arrangements we have struck up with the USA. It’s a deeply frightening situation to be in and I’m relieved that the UK justice system has stood up for its citizens."

Alistair Graham, Mr Norris’s solicitor at White & Case, said: “We’re absolutely delighted that the House of Lords has upheld what we’ve been saying for more than two years, namely that no criminal offence of price-fixing existed in the UK prior to the enactment of the Enterprise Act and that price-fixing in itself cannot be characterised as the old English common law offence of conspiracy to defraud."

Mr Graham said that extraditing Mr Norris because he is accused of tampering with documents would be "wholly disproportionate and an infringement of his human rights" adding that the legal team "will continue to fight this case every step of the way.”

Mr Norris, 65, a former senior executive of Morgan Crucible, the carbon manufacturing giant, has been fighting extradition since he was charged with seven counts of conspiracy to defraud and two charges of perverting the course of justice in 2002. The US Deparment of Justice has accused him of fixing the prices of carbon components in trains between 1989 and 2000 and destroying the evidence.

His case has been watched keenly by other leading businessmen, as well by as the Serious Fraud Office, and was the first test in Britain’s highest court of the controversial new fast-track extradition arrangements between Britain and America.

Organisations such as Justice and Liberty have lined up to back Mr Norris’s case, along with the business and legal communities.

The decision was welcomed in the City. Clare Canning, a respected litigator at law firm Mayer Brown, said: "It restores faith in the English legal system not selling its businessmen out to America, applying an English construction to our laws instead of bending over to keep the Department of Justice happy."

Eoin O’Shea, an extradition expert at Simmons & Simmons, said: "This was the right result for those who believe that new categories of criminal liability should not be created on a case-by-case basis. It will come as a relief to international businesses, whose risk profile might otherwise have been wider and more uncertain."

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