Re: [Hampshire] Your Set Up

> Lets say this something I said here was a serious criminal offense in .de
> - then FWIU The UK police could turn up on my door, drag me out of bed
> and ship me off to the fatherland without seeing a UK beak.

No. German law does not apply in the UK. We are a separate sovereign
nation[1], with our own laws.

Our laws require our legislators to fashion our legal system such that it
does not contravene certain international agreements - but that is a world
away from saying that a foreign nation has supremacy over our own laws.

> I may have it wrong

You do...

> I may have to appear before a UK beak.

If you have not committed a crime, you do not have to appear before
anyone. I wrote some emails last night with a large G&T in my hand -
that's an offence in many Middle-Eastern countries. Guess how many plods
came knocking at my door this morning...

The principle of extraterritoriality does apply in some situations - but
that means that UK citizens are governed by some UK laws even when they
are not in the UK. If Germany has similar laws (and I've no idea if they
do or not), then *German* citizens would be subject to German laws whilst
in the UK - but I am not a German citizen, so that does not apply.

> BUt fast
> track extradition was intended to be just that - one day in a UK police
> cell next in a german one.

Sure - so *if* you commit an offence against German law whilst under
German jurisdiction, you could be extradited back to Germany to face the
charges. But that is not even remotely similar to becoming subject to the
laws of a foreign state. German law simply does not apply here;
extradition is about returning people to the jurisdiction in which they
allegedly committed an offence in order to be tried for that offence. It
is not the unification of nation states.

Vic.


[1] Well, we are at the moment. Given the gay abandon with which
transgressions by certain foreign powers have been accepted by our
government over the last few years, I'm not sure we will always remain
such :-(