At 05:30 PM 1/11/00 -0600, Brett Frankenberger wrote:
A person is subject to the laws and regulations of any country with the power to make him subject to those laws and regulations. See, for exmaple, Manuel Noreiga from Panama. He was neither a citizen nor a resident of the USoA when the USoA decided to make him subject to its drug laws. Since the USoA had more military capability than him, he was arrested.
I would agree with that assessment (from a "realistic" standpoint, but certainly not from a moral standpoint, if that was the case, we could make China open to freedom simply by virtue of saying "If you don't, we'll nuke you").
On the other hand, if Germany decides to indict an American citizen living in the USoA for distributing neo-Nazi propoganda (and Germany did just that), the aforementioned citizen isn't really subject to that indictment, because the USoA won't extradite him (the first amendment, and probably also the terms of the extradition treary, prevents them) and Germany doesn't have the ability to come and get him.
The USoA routinely indicts persons that are neither residents nor citizens of the USoA, although generally the indictment is for something they did in or to the USoA.
Correct. Indictments are easy to get. All that means is that the subject may never travel to a country who is a lackey for^W^W^W^Whas US-favorable extradition terms. D