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The practice of white-collar criminal law has become increasingly global in nature. Federal prosecutors now often prosecute individuals for acts that take place in many countries and have global effects. These cases raise a number of significant legal issues, including whether the charges rest on an improper extraterritorial application of U.S. law.
The impact of such cases is significant on individuals who live and work abroad. Historically, the “fugitive disentitlement” doctrine has foreclosed challenges to criminal charges by a defendant who does not physically submit to a U.S. court’s jurisdiction. As a consequence, to make even threshold challenges to an indictment, a defendant who lives abroad must leave home, waive the right to oppose extradition, and risk pre-trial detention in the United States.
