Crown Prosecution Service lawyers will put the case on behalf of the German authorities tomorrow that Fredrick Toben, an Australian doctor, should be extradited for offences allegedly committed in Germany.

The case is the latest example of the global reach of criminal laws - and of their impact between one European country and another.

The extradition request is being made under the European Arrest Warrant, a fast-track procedure to allow criminal suspects to be sent between European states.

The warrant, which came into force in January 2004, abolished the principle of “dual criminality” that existed under old extradition laws. This means that someone in Britain can be extradited for something that is not a crime here - as long as it is a criminal offence in the state requesting extradition.

The reform was rushed through in part as a response to terrorism after September 11. Ministers also argued that it would speed up a cumbersome and slow extradition process, helping criminals to be brought more swiftly to justice.

Critics pointed out, however, that people could find themselves charged with an offence they did not know existed because racism or xenophobia, for example, can be interpreted differently in different jurisdictions. The spectre of “thought crime”, a person facing trial for broadcasting xenophobic or racist remarks such as denying the Holocaust on an internet chatroom in another country - as alleged against Dr Toben - was the very criticism raised against the warrant before it took effect.

At the time ministers undertook that if such “offences” took place in Britain, the perpetrators would not be extradited. However, in defence of the European Arrest Warrant it is argued that a country cannot ask for someone to be extradited on suspicion of committing a far-fetched offence that would never be a crime in most states.

Lord Filkin, then the Home Office Minister, said when the legislation went through Parliament that no one would be extradited for conduct that was legal in Britain.

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