> Suppose some American teenager comes to the Netherlands at the age of > 17. Meets somebody over 18, they have sex. That would be punishable > under US Federal Law if I understand it correctly, so this somebody > would have to be arrested as soon as he/she enters the US. Yet we > explicitly chose to allow this in the Netherlands, for our own reasons. > Or an American citizen came here to work as prostitute (s)he would be > arrested when visiting relatives for Christmas. But prostitution is also > legal here, for reasons of our choosing.
Sorry, both examples you cite are incorrect. Prostitution and statutory rape are both laws at the state level. Every state has them, every state has a different Age of Consent in the case of a minor having sex with an adult. Prostitution garners different punishments in different states. Neither are federal offenses. To give you an example of wha you're trying to get at, it would take someone killing a person in the US and then fleeing to a European country. James Copp is an example of this. He is charged with the assination of a person. He fled to Canada and then to France. He is actually being tried under both Federal and State courts because of the varieties of laws he broke. Another example would be a student that flew to Amsterdam and partook of whatever and whenever. If he or she tried to bring some of the goodies back to the US then that person would be breaking federal laws and would be arrested if caught. The official charges that Lindh pled guilty to today were that he fought in a foreign military against US forces while still a citizen of the US. There are federal laws stating that any violent action against a federal employee (in this case I think they were referring to the CIA agents as the federal employees) is an immediate federal offense. The second charge was posession of explosives while committing a felony. So he was armed with an AK-47 and two grenades and going up against CIA operatives. He broke federal laws. Doing so in any other civilized nation, including the Netherlands, would earn him a ticket on a plane in handcuffs for extradition. > We choose which rules there are on our territory and if those rules > allow things to be done to or by US citizens that would not be allowed > in the US maybe the US should forbid its citizens to travel here, but it > should not impose its law on our territory. > > Jochem There are such things as international treaties and extraditions. Also remember that at the time of his capture the US was occupying Afganistan. US military bases are considered US soil which makes them exempt from local laws and subject to both Federal laws and the rules set forth by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Service personnel are expected to follow both the laws they are subject to on their base as well as local laws, customs and traditions (to a point, I know there's been a debate over female personnel being required to wear face coverings in Muslim countries) as well. It's not all cut and dried. There's also a very difficult line that people that don't live in the US don't see that seperates the laws of each of the 50 states from the laws of the federal government. Hatton ______________________________________________________________________ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
