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- Title
In Defense of the U.S. Maritime Drug Enforcement Act: A Justification for the Law's Extraterritorial Reach.
- Authors
Casavant, Aaron J.
- Abstract
Despite the fact that certain drug crimes take place thousands of miles from the United States, aboard vessels registered in foreign countries and crewed by foreign nationals, drug traffickers are often successfully prosecuted in U.S. federal courts. This system is firmly grounded in international and domestic law and enables the U.S. government to deliver serious criminal consequences to regional drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), as well as to individual drug smugglers. Smugglers often receive lengthy prison sentences for violating U.S. laws like the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA). Some commentators have argued, however, that international law principles of prescriptive jurisdiction and constitutional notions of due process would seem to prohibit the criminal prosecution of foreign nationals with little, if any, connection to the United States, especially when they are apprehended aboard foreign vessels far from U.S. territory or interdicted within the territorial seas of foreign nations. These scholars also argue that drug trafficking is not subject to universal jurisdiction because it is not yet recognized as a universal crime like slavery or genocide. This article argues that there are other, equally valid bases under international law supporting the MDLEA that do not require maritime drug trafficking to be considered a universal crime to enable prosecution in the United States.
- Subjects
UNITED States; DRUG control; LAW enforcement; DRUG traffic
- Publication
Harvard National Security Journal, 2017, Vol 8, Issue 1, p113
- ISSN
2153-1358
- Publication type
Article