Kirby

Appellees Terence Damien Kirby, Pol Brennan and Kevin Barry John Artt fled to the United States after escaping in 1983, along with 35 other prisoners, from the Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In January, 1996 U.S. District Judge Charles A. Legge released all three on bail, pending a heating under 18 U.S.C. § 3184 to determine whether they are extraditable to the United Kingdom. The United States appeals the bail orders on behalf of the United Kingdom. 1 We affirm the grant of bail..

I.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The United Kingdom requested extradition of Artt, Brennan and Kirby under the Extradition Treaty Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, June 8, 1972, U.S.-U.K., 28 U.S.T. 227, (The “U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty”), as modified by the Supplementary Treaty Concerning the Extradition Treaty, June 25, 1985, U.S.-U.K, reprinted in S.Exec.Rep. No. 99-17, at 15-17 (1986) (the “Supplementary Treaty”). United States authorities arrested Artt in June 1992, Brennan in January 1993, and Kirby in February 1994. The district court, Judge Legge presiding, stayed Artt’s and…

dissenting from the assumption of jurisdiction:

Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, determined by the Constitution and by statute. Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, 511 U.S. 375, 377 , 114 S.Ct. 1673, 1675 , 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994). The jurisdiction of a court of appeals to hear an appeal is determined by statute. In re Vylene Enterprises, Inc., 968 F.2d 887, 889 (9th Cir.1992). We cannot expand our jurisdiction by judicial decree. Kokkonen, 511 U.S. at 377 , 114 S.Ct. at 1675 . “It is to be presumed that a cause lies outside this limited jurisdiction ... and the burden of establishing the contrary rests upon the party asserting jurisdiction....” Id. (citations omitted). The United States has failed to establish that we have jurisdiction to hear its appeal in these matters.

To begin with, the United States has identified no statute that confers jurisdiction upon a court of appeals to hear an appeal from a grant of bail in an extradition matter. The. absence of such a statute is fatal. Without it, this court has no business to transact.

Failing to find a statute, the United States has raised various arguments, which I now review. One is patently…