A political science question?

Question

if a frenchman kills a canadian person on a cruise ship in U.S. territorial waters, which country's court could claim jurisdiction to try the crime?

thanks

Answer 1

The U.S. clearly has jurisdiction because the act took place in its territory.  Whether France and Canada have jurisdiction depends on their national laws.  The likelihood is that they both do.  Most nations have laws that extend their jurisdictional authority to certain acts - such as murder - that occur any where in world if their citizen is either the victim or the perpetrator.  As a result, France would have jurisdiction as the nation of the perpetrator and Canada would have jurisdiction as the nation of the victim.

The State and Foreign Ministries of the three nations would work it out so that one of them would get jurisdiction over the case and the others would likely cede their jurisdiction to try this case so that the defendant is only tried once.