What *I* have said is that a person is subject to the laws and regulations of the country they live in (plus those they are a citizen of, if
From: Derek J. Balling <dredd@megacity.org> those are
not the same country), and not subject to the whims of other countries, so that's how I see it "from a legal standpoint". If the laws of his nation say that what he did, specifically, is a crime, then he can (and should) be held accountable to them. That's what sovereignty is all about.
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. 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. -- Brett