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Yeah the French are the only western Europeans who exercise any real sovereignty, except for maybe the Swiss, sort of. I reckon they have Charles de Gaulle to thank for that. They’re certainly in a privileged spot when it comes to NATO.

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If you want to consider non-extradition as measure of real sovereignty, then you’ll note from your parents article that a lot of European countries are on that list. In Germany, extradition of German nationals is barred on constitutional grounds (1) with the notable exceptions of extradition to other European states on the basis of the European Arrest Warrant and to the International Court. Similar exceptions apply in France, which is also bound by the European Arrest Warrant.

(1) https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_16.html

In Germany German nationals can be “voluntarily” extradited (the Bundesregierung does the volunteering) and guess what, when the USA wants the person they get him or her.

Isn't this a civil case? Would extradition even apply?

My original comment was a bit of a joke related to how far the long arm of US copyright law will try to reach.

They charged the megaupload folks with racketeering and money laundering before swatting them in a different country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaupload_legal_case

The notion of it seems a bit ludicrous to me.

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