The refusal of some countries to extradite persons accused or convicted of terrorist acts has focused attention on the problems caused by the political offense exception to extradition. Extradition is the process by which one country returns an accused or convicted person found within its borders to another country for trial or punishment. Under the political offense exception, the requested state may, if it considers the crime to be a “political offense,” deny extradition to the requesting state.
Protection of political offenses is a recent addition to the ancient practice of extradition. It is the result of two fundamental changes that occurred as European monarchies were replaced by representative governments. First, these governments began to reject what had been a primary intent of extradition, to expedite the return of political offenders, and instead sought to protect dissidents fleeting despotic regimes, second, countries began to contend that they had no legal or moral duty to extradite offenders without specific agreements creating such obligations. As extradition laws subsequently developed through international treaties, the political offense exception gradually became an accepted principle among Western nations.
There is no international consensus, however, as to what constitutes a political offense. For analytical purposes illegal political conduct has traditionally been divided into two categories. “Pure” political offenses are acts perpetrated directly against the government, such as treason and espionage. These crimes are generally recognized as nonextraditable, even if not expressly excluded from extradition by the applicable treaty. In contrast, common crimes, such as murder, assault, and robbery, are generally extraditable. However, there are some common crimes that are so inseparable from a political act that the entire offense is regarded as political. These crimes, which are called “relative” political offenses, are generally nonextraditable.
Despite the widespread acceptance of these analytic constructs, the distinctions are more academic than meaningful. When it comes to real case, there is no agreement about what transforms a common crime into a political offense and about whether terrorist acts fall within the protection of the exception. Most terrorists claim that their acts do fall under this protection.
Nations of the world must now balance the competing needs of political freedom and international public order. It is time to reexamine the political offense and nonpolitical crimes. The only rational and attainable objective of the exception is to protect the requested person against unfair treatment by the requesting country. The international community needs to find an alternative to the political offense exception that would protect the rights of requested persons and yet not offer terrorists immunity from criminal liability.
61. In the passage, the author primarily seeks to ______.
62. According to the passage, when did countries begin to except political offenders from extradition?
63. According to the author, the primary purpose of the political offense exception should be to ______.
64. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would agree with which one of the following statements about the political exception?
65. The author would most likely agree that the political offense exception ______.
问题1选项
A.define a set of terms
B.outline a new approach
C.describe a current problem
D.expose an illegal practice
问题2选项
A.When the principle of extraditing accused or convicted persons originated.
B.When some nations began refusing to extradite persons accused or convicted of terrorist acts.
C.When representative government began to replace European monarchies.
D.When countries began to refuse to extradite persons accused or convicted of common crimes.
问题3选项
A.ensure that terrorists are tried for their acts
B.ensure that individuals accused of political crimes are not treated unfairly
C.distinguish between political and nonpolitical offenses
D.limit extradition to those accused of “pure” political offenses
问题4选项
A.The exception is very unproven.
B.The exception is probably illegal.
C.The exception is used too little.
D.The exception needs rethinking.
问题5选项
A.has in some cases, been stretched beyond its intended use
B.has been used too infrequently to be evaluated
C.has been a modestly useful weapon against terrorism
D.has never met the objective for which it was originally established
第1题:C
第2题:C
第3题:B
第4题:D
第5题:A
第1题:
推理判断题。题干意思是“在文章中，作者主要寻求……”。文章第一段最后一句提到了Under the political offense exception, the requested state may, if it considers the crime to be a “political offense,” deny extradition to the requesting state.（根据政治罪例外，如果被请求国认为罪行为“政治罪”，可以拒绝向请求国引渡），可知文章首先讲述了某些国家拒绝引渡大部分原因是政治庇护，然后作者在第二段解释了什么是引渡和什么是因为政治原因拒绝引渡，这是对当今社会中出现问题的总体描述而展开整篇文章的论述，故C项“描述当前的问题”正确。A项“定义一组术语”完全不是作者想要描述的内容；B项“概述一种新方法”文章没有提到什么新方法，B项不选；D项“揭露违法行为”，文章主要是第三段有描述，其他段落都没有提及，所以D项也不选。因此该题选C。
第2题:
推理判断题。题干意思是“根据短文，各国从什么时候开始把政治犯引渡除外了？”。根据文章第二段前两句Protection of political offenses is a recent addition to the ancient practice of extradition. It is the result of two fundamental changes that occurred as European monarchies were replaced by representative governments.（对政治犯罪的保护是对引渡的古老做法的新近补充。这是代议制政府取代欧洲君主制之后发生的两大根本性变化的结果。）由此可知，代议制政府取代欧洲君主制之后政治犯引渡就受到了保护，即政治犯引渡例外，所以C项“代议制政府开始取代欧洲的君主政体”正确。A项“当引渡被指控者或被定罪者的原则起源的时候”，文中没有相关信息提及此内容，A项不选；B项“当一些国家开始拒绝引渡被指控或判定犯有恐怖主义行为的人的时候”，第一段首句提到The refusal of some countries to extradite persons accused or convicted of terrorist acts has focused attention on the problems caused by the political offense exception to extradition. （一些国家拒绝引渡被指控或被判定犯有恐怖主义行为的人，引起了人们对政治犯罪例外引渡所引起的问题的关注。），由此可知一些国家开始拒绝引渡被指控或判定犯有恐怖主义行为的人这一行为引起了人们对这一问题的关注，而不是引起各国开始把政治犯引渡除外的原因，因此B项不正确；D项“当各国开始拒绝引渡被指控或被判犯有普通罪行的人的时候”，文章首句提到了是“一些”而不是所有国家，与原文不符，D项错误。因此该题选C。
第3题:
推理判断题。题干意思是“作者认为，政治犯罪例外的主要目的应该是为了什么？”。根据文章最后一段第三句The only rational and attainable objective of the exception is to protect the requested person against unfair treatment by the requesting country.（政治犯罪例外的唯一合理和可实现的目标是保护被请求人不受请求国的不公平待遇）可知，作者认为政治犯罪例外的主要目的是保护政治犯不受请求国的不公平待遇，因此B项“确保被控犯有政治罪行的个人不受不公平对待”正确。A项“确保恐怖分子的行为受到审判”，根据文章最后一句The international community needs to find an alternative to the political offense exception that would protect the rights of requested persons and yet not offer terrorists immunity from criminal liability.（国际社会需要找到政治犯罪例外之外的替代办法，既保护被请求人的权利，又不给予恐怖分子刑事责任豁免。）可知确保恐怖分子的行为受到审判是作者在提出国际社会需要找到政治犯罪例外之外的替代办法时所论述的内容，所以，该项不是政治犯罪例外的主要目的，A项错误。C项“区分政治犯罪和非政治犯罪”，根据最后一段前两句Nations of the world must now balance the competing needs of political freedom and international public order. It is time to reexamine the political offense and nonpolitical crimes.（世界各国现在必须在政治自由和国际公共秩序的相互竞争的需要之间取得平衡。是时候重新审视政治犯罪和非政治犯罪了。）可知，区分政治犯罪和非政治犯罪是为了让各国在政治自由和国际公共秩序的相互竞争的需要之间取得平衡，所以C项错误。D项“将引渡限制在那些被指控为‘纯粹’政治罪行的人”，根据第三段最后两句However, there are some common crimes that are so inseparable from a political act that the entire offense is regarded as political. These crimes, which are called “relative” political offenses, are generally nonextraditable.（然而，也有一些普通犯罪与政治行为是如此密不可分，以至于整个犯罪都被视为政治犯罪。这些犯罪被称为“相对”政治犯罪，通常是不可引渡的。）可知，引渡不止是限制在“纯粹”政治犯，也限制这些“相对”政治犯。因此该题选B。
第4题:
推理判断题。题干意思是“从文章中可以推断出，作者将会同意下列哪一种关于政治例外的陈述？”。根据文章最后一段中第二句 It is time to reexamine the political offense and nonpolitical crimes.（是时候重新审视政治犯罪和非政治犯罪了）和最后一句 The international community needs to find an alternative to the political offense exception that would protect the rights of requested persons and yet not offer terrorists immunity from criminal liability.（国际社会需要找到政治犯罪例外之外的替代办法，既保护被请求人的权利，又不给予恐怖分子刑事责任豁免）可知，作者认为政治犯罪例外需要重新审视，其中reexamine与rethink为近义词，所以D项“这个例外需要重新思考”正确。A项“这个例外是未经证实的”，根据第二段最后一句As extradition laws subsequently developed through international treaties, the political offense exception gradually became an accepted principle among Western nations.（随着引渡法通过国际条约的发展，政治犯罪例外逐渐成为西方国家普遍接受的原则。）可知，A项错误；B项“这种例外可能是非法的”和C项“例外使用得太少”都没有提到。因此该题选D。
第5题:
推理判断题。题干意思是“作者很可能同意政治犯罪例外……”。根据第四段最后两句 When it comes to real case, there is no agreement about what transforms a common crime into a political offense and about whether terrorist acts fall within the protection of the exception. Most terrorists claim that their acts do fall under this protection.（在实际案件中，对于如何将普通犯罪转变为政治犯罪，以及恐怖主义行为是否属于例外的保护范围，没有达成一致意见。大多数恐怖分子声称他们的行为确实受到这种保护。）和最后一段第二句It is time to reexamine the political offense and nonpolitical crimes.（是时候重新审视政治犯罪和非政治犯罪了。）可推断，政治犯罪例外在某些情况下保护了恐怖分子，所以这是超出了预期的用途，故A项“在某些情况下，已经超出了预期用途”正确。B项“使用得太不频繁而无法进行评估”，根据第二段最后一句the political offense exception gradually became an accepted principle among Western nations.（政治犯罪例外逐渐成为西方国家普遍接受的原则。）可知，西方国家普遍使用政治犯罪例外，所以B项错误。C项“是对付恐怖主义的适度有效的武器”，文章已经提到对部分恐怖分子起了保护作用，所以C项错误。D项“从未达到它最初设立的目标”没有提到。因此该题选A。
