Chapter 14, Problem 5EC

Summary Introduction

To Explain:

If you have been the US judge in this case, have you ruled similarly?

Given information:

You are a lawyer with the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Netherlands. Your task is to review a recent decision by a US judge regarding extraterritoriality. The case: French survivors of the Holocaust sued Yahoo USA because French citizens were purchasing Nazi memorabilia on Yahoo’s US website. The lawsuit also charged Yahoo USA with hosting the websites of anti-Semitic groups. Although both these actions are illegal according to French law, they are permitted in the United States because of the US legislation protecting free speech. Because Yahoo’s French website did not violate French law, the US federal judge hearing the case threw it out. The judge ruled that French law does not have the right to dictate the behavior of US firms operating inside the United Sates. Today, the Internet can make it difficult to determine where jurisdictions begin and end.