At 11:20 AM 11/15/2002, alex@yuriev.com wrote:
Unnamed Administration sources reported that alex@yuriev.com said:
This is not correct. Such laws tend to cover whatever is shown to the Spanish citizens, no matter by whom.
Oh?
A friend of mine is such. He just happens to live in the DC area, and has for 30 years...
How would such a block be enforced...?
Very simple. Someone names him in a lawsuit. A spanish judge issues subpoena. He ignores it and does not appear in court. The same judge would order an equivalent of a bench warrant to be issued. At some point your friend will end up going through a passport control at an international airport and as opposite to going to vacation in Amsterdam, he will end up in a lovely jail pending extradition to Spain. Welcome to the lovely world that you want to ignore. Alex
I have a bit of news for you here. Dutch authorities do not recognize Spanish bench warrants, and more importantly border patrols do not check for passports in the Schengen area (except for airport/seaport checks if you are arriving from outside that area). The Schengen area is virtually the same as all member countries within the European Community, except for (how is it possible..:)) the United Kingdom. The first point a bit elaborated....only Europol has extra territorial authority within the EU. Spanish law (civil and criminal) is and remains for Spain only. And some more news....it is not possible within the Schengen area to extradite one citizen from one member state to another. If one commits a crime, one is prosecuted and jailed in the country where the crime took place. Even more news.....criminal law of one country can be and is different than for another. Here's a nice one....if you are Spanish and commit something that is a crime in Spain, but you do it in Germany where it happens not to be a crime, you cannot be prosecuted in your own country (Spain). If you like more exotic examples, let me know. We happen to be in a EU advisory board that deals with this sort of hmmmm relationships :) best Bert Fortrie