We know that Julian Assange is an enemy of the US government. The US government, persuasively, says that Mr Assange’s actions impermissibly put the lives of millions of US citizens in grave danger. Under international law, however, the question arises whether he can be extradited to the US to stand trial before the US judiciary for the criminal offences with which he has been charged: essentially that he received and disseminated protected national defence information and state secrets. If these offences are properly characterised as political offences then his extradition should be refused because they are expressly precluded from the catalogue of extraditable offences under the Anglo-US Extradition Treaty. Under UK domestic law, the question arises whether Mr Assange will get a fair trial in a US court if he is extradited to stand trial there because UK domestic legislation prohibits people from being extradited from the UK to a place where they will not receive a fair trial. But is there a sufficient basis for believing that he will not get a fair trial in the US, after all the US has a judiciary that is generally accepted as one that is both fair and independent. And what of the assurances given to the UK by the US designed to ensure that Mr Assange will not be treated unfairly? Are they good enough? No doubt there will be further legal challenges after this one. Extradition processes are notoriously long, complex and technical. The next court, on appeal, will need to engage, again, with both the international law and domestic law questions raised above. We will monitor the appeal with much interest.