Here in the US, the ACLU puts out a “What to do if you’re stopped by the police” publication, which outlines what your rights are in various situations involving the police (being arrested, having your house searched, simple questioning, etc.)
Does anyone know where I can obtain similar information for other countries, i.e. England, Germany, Italy, France, India, Lithuania, etc.? I’m curious as to what the differences are.
See here for Liberty’s (the UK version of ACLU) guide to your rights under arrest and whilst in prison.
Hmmm. That was tricky for Britain, until I googled ‘uk arrested advice’ 
(I guess foreign languages will be more of a problem, though)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife/legal/the_law/advice_charged.shtml
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association publishes an arrest handbook dealing with Canadian law of arrest, available in English, Vietnamese, Spanish and Arabic. You have to contact them for a copy, but it’s free.
New Zealand’s laws regarding rights under arrest come under our Bill of Rights Act.
Yo necessito uno abogado que hablo ingles.
The Law Society of NSW provides some info here about being arrested in NSW.
As a matter of international law if a foreigner is arrested doesn’t the arresting country need to inform the embassy of the country that the accused is a citizen of?
I suppose it makes sense to have a guide handy for what to do if arrested while abroad but in most western countries I never bothered checking as I expect them to treat me fairly and things will get sorted out. If travelling in some other parts of the world where the rule of law is not so stringent (or vastly different than in the west) then such a guide would be very handy. Either way it was always my assumption that if arrested my first job would be to get in contact with my government (via an embassy likely) and then they would come running to help sort things out.
Kind of curious what how British law enforcement would handle a dumb American like me who would be sitting there spouting off about my Miranda rights and phone call and demanding an attorney while they keep trying to tell me I am not in Kansas anymore. Surely this sort of thing has been faced by them before and they have some way of handling it (barring just smacking me).
Yes, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations says the consulate must be notified (or, rather, that the arresting country has to inform you of the right to have the consulate notified, and to notify them if you then wish them notified). The optional protocol that the US withdrew from a year ago only concerned enforcement of this oblgation by suit in the International Court of Justice, not the obligation itself.
I suspect they’d (a) let the duty solicitor try to explain to you what your rights are, (b) contact the consulate as they’re obliged to do, and if you still ignored them and carried on spouting off, (c) interpret it as an exercising of the right to silence, and stick you in a cell to cool off.
Are you sure you mean ‘arrested’, and not ‘charged’? I was arrested by military police in Singapore and released without charge. At no point was consular involvement mentioned.
Forget all that fancy advice. Just keep shouting “You can’t do this to me! I’m an American!” They’ll get the message!