International Law Procedures

The act must be a crime in the country in which it is committed, and it would be prosecuted in that country. As an example, it is illegal for a female to attend school in some Middle Eastern countries. If a female from that country attends a school in the U.S., she is not breaking our laws. It remains to be seen what would happen to her if she returned to her country.
On the same vein, it is legal for a man to beat his wife in some Middle Eastern countries. If that man and his wife came to the U.S., and he beat her, he would be prosecuted for assault, because it is a crime in this country.

RJK said:

The act must be a crime in the country in which it is committed, and it would be prosecuted in that country. As an example, it is illegal for a female to attend school in some Middle Eastern countries. If a female from that country attends a school in the U.S., she is not breaking our laws. It remains to be seen what would happen to her if she returned to her country.
On the same vein, it is legal for a man to beat his wife in some Middle Eastern countries. If that man and his wife came to the U.S., and he beat her, he would be prosecuted for assault, because it is a crime in this country.

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There are, however, exceptions. For example, if an adult US citizen travels to Andorra, say, and has sex with a 16 yo female he can be prosecuted in the US as a pedophile even though in Andorra the legal age of consent for heterosexual sex is 16. The same would be true in Canada where the AoC is 16.
C

RJK said:

The act must be a crime in the country in which it is committed, and it would be prosecuted in that country. As an example, it is illegal for a female to attend school in some Middle Eastern countries. If a female from that country attends a school in the U.S., she is not breaking our laws. It remains to be seen what would happen to her if she returned to her country.
On the same vein, it is legal for a man to beat his wife in some Middle Eastern countries. If that man and his wife came to the U.S., and he beat her, he would be prosecuted for assault, because it is a crime in this country.

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That's true for normal crimes. But when there's a crime against humanity - especially if the country in which it was committed is unable/unwilling to prosecute - then other tribunals may pursue the case.

For instance, Slobodan Milosovich was tried at the International Criminal Court in the Hague for war crimes committed in the Balkans.

From a legal prospective, a crime against humanity is defined under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is connected with the Hague. The ICC would have jurisdiction and the hearing would be conducted under its rules and at the Hague. The crimes are:

For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

1. murder;
2. extermination;
3. enslavement;
4. deportation or forcible transfer of population;
5. imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
6. torture;
7. rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
8. Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender;
9. enforced disappearance of persons;
10. crime of apartheid; or
11. Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

Any crime against humanity would definitely be against Spanish law on an individual basis and mostly against US law (there are issues involving our interrogation and detention methods). Either Spain or the US would prosecute as the jurisdiction in which the crime occurred, under the local rules. And in the US, it would actually be more likely a state crime, rather than a federal crime.

Crimes against US citizens can be prosecuted in the US, regardless of where they occurred, and will form the basis for the prosecution against the pirate the Navy just acquired. Spain may have a similar statute, but I don't know.

Lacking specifics of what you're trying to do, it's difficult to give you a solid answer. International law is exceedingly complicated.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

jclarkdawe said:

The ICC would have jurisdiction and the hearing would be conducted under its rules and at the Hague.

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But, keep in mind that the US has not joined the ICC. That might complicate things.

raelwv said:

Originally Posted by jclarkdawe
The ICC would have jurisdiction and the hearing would be conducted under its rules and at the Hague.

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But, keep in mind that the US has not joined the ICC. That might complicate things.

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Yes and no.

For a defendant to be charged with a crime against humanity, there needs to be a specific statute against it, such as the Rome Statute. Neither the US nor Spain, to the best of my knowledge, have a statute that creates a crime against humanity.

So neither Spain nor the US would charge a crime against humanity. For example, the terrorists that blew up the train in Spain were not charged with a crime against humanity. The defendants were charged with murder, setting off explosives, and similar charges.

The ICC does not have the ability to arrest. Arrests are carried out by national governments, acting in their interests. If the US (or Spain) figures they'll come out ahead with arresting someone and turning them over to the ICC, they'll do it. Otherwise, they ignore the ICC.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe