The Protective Principle

The protective principle recognizes that a sovereign can adopt a statute that criminalizes conduct that occurs outside of its borders when that conduct affects the sovereign itself.  Under that principle a nation can adopt laws that make it a crime to engage in an act that obstructs the function of government or threatens its security as a state without regard to where or by whom the act is committed.

United States v. Zehe, 601 F. Supp. 196 (D. Mass. 1985)

            1. In what type of conduct did the defendant, Zehe, engage and did the court find the statute that criminalized that conduct to be within the protective principle?

            2.  In the court’s analysis is the application of the protective principle affected by the fact that the defendant is not a citizen of the sovereign against who he committed the crime?

 

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Crim Juris 5