In 1998, Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead and the other British Law Lords came to the international fore in deciding whether Sen. Augusto Pinochet could be extradited to Spain. Three lords, including Nicholls, rejected the argument that Pinochet was immune from arrest and prosecution for his acts as Head of State in Chile. They said the State Immunity Act 1978 flouted a battery of international legislation on human rights abuses to which Britain is a signatory and, secondly, it would have meant endorsing the arguments of Pinochet's legal team that British law would have protected even Adolf Hitler.