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Guest
Guest
Imagine this. You live in the United States. You were born in the US. You have never stepped off US soil in your entire life. Other than rolling stops at stop signs, a little speeding here and there, and some consensual sexual activity that might offend puritans, you have never violated one single law, state or federal, in your life. So one night while you’re watching some insipid sitcom on the tube there’s a knock on your door. The police are there to arrest you. You are being arrested on a warrant issued by a court in (by way of example) Greece. The crime? You said something naughty about Greeks. Something xenophobic or, in their definition, racist. You have done something that would constitute a crime if you had done it in Greece – so they’re having you arrested. You will be shipped off to Greece to face a Greek court for your crimes.
Sounds completely absurd, doesn’t it? Couldn’t possibly happen, right? You should know, then, that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided that he’s going to go along with the idea of a European Union arrest warrant. Critics claim that this means that a British citizen could be seized and handed over to some other EU country to be put on trial for an act committed on British soil that doesn’t even constitute a crime under British law!
Sounds completely absurd, doesn’t it? Couldn’t possibly happen, right? You should know, then, that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided that he’s going to go along with the idea of a European Union arrest warrant. Critics claim that this means that a British citizen could be seized and handed over to some other EU country to be put on trial for an act committed on British soil that doesn’t even constitute a crime under British law!
