It’s well known that it’s illegal under US law for a US citizen to purchase a Cuban cigar or have sex with a child anywhere in the world, even if it is legal under local law.
To what extent do extraterritorial laws such as these exist outside of US Federal law? I’m primarily interested in things that are illegal only in some places. For example, do Japanese tourists fly back to Japan only to face arrest for possessing a firearm on a shooting range in Texas that was perfectly legal under US and Texas law? Do any sub-national jurisdictions have extraterritorial laws that apply elsewhere in the country even if the behavior is legal in that other jurisdiction in the same country? For example, are there people doing hard time in Scottish prisons for being a legal resident of Scotland who engaged in conduct while in England that was legal in England but would have been illegal had it been committed in Scotland, or does California have a law banning state residents from gambling in a legal Nevada casino?
Treason against your country of citizenship might be one- I doubt the US cares a whole lot if a UK citizen flies to New York and, while there, commits treason against the UK. Are there any other examples?
Do you have a cite that a US citizen, while legally visiting Cuba, can’t buy and consume cigars there? Now yes, they are supposedly limited in how much moola they can bring in.
And I am not sure even #2 is correct, but I think the law is that it is illegal to go overseas with the express purpose of doing so.
It’s illegal for a South Korean citizen to gamble anywhere in the world, except the one or two casinos in South Korea where they are permitted to enter. Some Korean star got in trouble for gambling in Nevada. Oh, and a Korean woman (google for Almond Tease, remembering that the vast majority of the sites returned are definitely not safe for work) got prosecuted for acting in a porn video outside of Korea.
Now that I think about it there are also crimes known as “Hostis humani generis” which can be prosecuted by any nation against anyone. The traditional example here is (high-seas) piracy.
It’s interesting, thanks. While I did say that I was looking more for examples of things that are legal under the local law of the host state but are illegal only due to an extraterritorial law reaching out from another country, laws like this are ok answers too.
The South Korean law fits the intent of my question perfectly. Thanks!
Isn’t the entire French criminal code applicable to citizens traveling overseas? I know France does not extradite it’s nationals; if they commit a crime overseas & make it back to France they’re tried in a French court under French law.
If the piracy is committed on the “high seas”, there is no host state. Which suggests a variation on the OP: what states criminalize some actions by their citizens in stateless regions?
No, the criminal code doesn’t differ very much for practical purposes (well, Scotland has three possible verdicts at trial). The civil law can be a bit different I think - there was a case that resulted in Scottish newspapers publishing something that had an injunction granted against publication in England and Wales, but that was more an oversight on the part of the lawyers in London. Contract law does differ though.
Re-read your notice. Note the phrase “*in a third country *“. Note again my question “Do you have a cite that a US citizen, while legally visiting Cuba, can’t buy and consume cigars there." Note the below OFAC regulation. See the line “goods personally used by the traveler in Cuba”.
Authorized travelers also may engage in all transactions ordinarily incident to travel anywhere within Cuba, such as hotel accommodations, meals, local transportation, and goods personally used by the traveler in Cuba, provided that the total for such expenses does not exceed the State Department perdiem rate allowance for Havana, Cuba, in place during the period that the travel takes place, unless the authorized activities require increased expenditures.
I still would not feel comfortable that I was following the law if I bought and smoked a cigar in Cuba, even if I was there legally. Every site that quotes the regulation I quoted above states that it is illegal for an American to purchase a Cuban cigar anywhere in the world, which would include Cuba. It would seem inconsistent for the regulation to forbid me from purchasing a Cuban cigar and smoking it in Canada, while allowing me to do the same in Cuba.
It’s possible that I’m wrong, but I’d still like to see a cite from OFAC explicitly allowing the purchase of Cuban cigars in Cuba.
