Item — HN Reader

I'm not sure what the point of this comment is. Julian Assange predicted his fate if he left the embassy? So?

I think he should be in court while the accusers plead their case. Ellsberg beat the government in court afterall.

The only alternative is to abolish the courts and legal system and let people get a free pass since the system is not perfect.

2 comments

The point is that many observers claimed that this was just a crazy conspiracy theory. It was not.

Claiming that what is a conspiracy theory?

Why does U.S. law have any jurisdiction over a foreign national?

There should be no consequences for carrying out criminal activity across borders due to matters of jurisdiction?

International law is incredibly complicated. It's up to the countries involved to make the decision in addition to whether or not extradition makes sense. You don't have to agree with that but once again- what is your alternative?

> There should be no consequences for carrying out criminal activity across borders due to matters of jurisdiction?

In China it's against the law to publicly criticise the government. Should the US extradite people to China to face the penalties for violating that law?

> There should be no consequences for carrying out criminal activity across borders due to matters of jurisdiction?

Depends. But sometimes yes. "Criminal activity" is often times country specific.

The sad answer is that there are essentially only 3 sovereign countries left in the world. Legal reasoning only comes into play when making the justifications more plausible.

what are the three you are thinking of?

USA

China

Russia

and their respective allies / blocs ?

Probably Switzerland as well, although EU and US seem to erode that sovereignity.