Thread: Universal Jurisdiction??

Originally Posted by Big Red

I can understand if I commit a crime in spain they can punish me. but what do I care if they sentence me for something I do here in the US? I'm not their citizen and don't recognize their authority.

Anybody with insight into how people think this universal jurisdiction thing is supposed to work please share.

Red

Originally Posted by Bruno

Belgium had a law that bascially said that we could prosecute people for crimes that were committed by non-Belgians on non-Belgian soil.

Isn't this more commonplace than we think it is? Including in the US? This is a prominent item in the UK news right now: Gary McKinnon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The guy was hacking into US military computers and is fighting extradition to the US where he will likely serve a stiff (possibly life) sentence. I have no idea whether he deserves it or not, but it's interesting that he is to be prosecuted in the US for something he did in the UK, and neither is he a US citizen.

I don't personally see the confusion here. The internet makes this entirely reasonable. He did, after all, commit an act of crime against the US, albeit whilst he was in the UK.

And if we're to really stretch that definition, isn't that the same situation as Osama Bin Laden, wrt committing a crime against a country whilst being abroad?

Or am I missing something (again!)?

Thats a good question Red. There is no answer that I know of. There is no universal law as you may well know that everyone follows and must obey or else suffer the consequences. Well, maybe the "we will all die some day" law. But thats different.

Its like asking, what exactly is the law? It really is just a set of rules that a society has agreed to follow. There is no world society, thus, no world government. And without a world government, its sort of hard to enforce universal laws. Laws are only laws because people made them laws. And we follow the laws because we either police ourselves or have a government to police society and enforce the laws.

In America the Constitution gives states the inalienable right to govern certain things. And while it may sound weird, one state could decide that murder is no longer illegal. Extreme example and that will never happen in all likelihood, but its an interesting exercise in thought. And while you may not be able to be prosecuted in state Y for crimes committed in state X, state Y can still extradite you to state X where you can be prosecuted. Its not like you get immunity just for crossing the border.

Even in country's that have no extradition laws, if the accused left the country or somehow came within the borders of the country where the crime was committed...... But thats another subject.