Blocking specific sites within certain countries.

Fri Nov 15 23:59:34 UTC 2002

At 11:20 AM 11/15/2002, alex at yuriev.com wrote:

> >
> > Unnamed Administration sources reported that alex at yuriev.com said:
> > >
> > > This is not correct. Such laws tend to cover whatever is shown to the
> > > Spanish citizens, no matter by whom.
> >
> > Oh?
> >
> > A friend of mine is such. He just happens to live in the DC area,
> > and has for 30 years...
> >
> > How would such a block be enforced...?
>
>Very simple. Someone names him in a lawsuit. A spanish judge issues
>subpoena. He ignores it and does not appear in court. The same judge would
>order an equivalent of a bench warrant to be issued. At some point your
>friend will end up going through a passport control at an international
>airport and as opposite to going to vacation in Amsterdam, he will end up in
>a lovely jail pending extradition to Spain.
>Welcome to the lovely world that you want to ignore.
>Alex

I have a bit of news for you here. Dutch authorities do not recognize 
Spanish bench warrants, and more importantly border patrols do not check 
for passports in the Schengen area (except for airport/seaport checks if 
you are arriving from outside that area). The Schengen area is virtually 
the same as all member countries within the European Community, except for 
(how is it possible..:)) the United Kingdom.  The first point a bit 
elaborated....only Europol has extra territorial authority within the 
EU.  Spanish law (civil and criminal) is and remains for Spain only.  And 
some more news....it is not possible within the Schengen area to extradite 
one citizen from one member state to another.  If one commits a crime, one 
is prosecuted and jailed in the country where the crime took place.  Even 
more news.....criminal law of one country can be and is different than for 
another. Here's a nice one....if you are Spanish and commit something that 
is a crime in Spain, but you do it in Germany where it happens not to be a 
crime, you cannot be prosecuted in your own country (Spain).  If you like 
more exotic examples, let me know.
We happen to be in a EU advisory board that deals with this sort of hmmmm 
relationships :)

best

Bert Fortrie