To what extent can a country criminalize acts outside its territory?

Question

Indonesia prohibits pornography.

If someone creates porn in Indonesia, that's illegal.

What about if an Indonesian citizen creates porn somewhere else?

What about if a non-Indonesian is a porn star somewhere else and then becomes a tourist in Indonesia?

Another recent example is this

China criminalized criticizing the CCP government for all people in the world. Can they really do that? Are there other examples of such codes?

Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 people who are UK citizens or residents, or who are neither, can be prosecuted in the UK, for sexual offences committed outside the UK that would be against UK law if committed inside the UK. — Michael Harvey, Commented Jul 4, 2020 at 15:33
So if someone have sex with a 17 years old girl in Indonesia, where it's legal, and then one day that guy is a tourist in UK, they went to jail? — user4951, Commented Jul 5, 2020 at 2:35
@user4951 No. Firstly because the legal age of consent in the UK is 16. Secondly, you need to be a national or resident (although not necessarily at the time the act was committed). — richardb, Commented Jul 5, 2020 at 6:51
I wonder if this should be another question. I know porn star can be a tourist in Indonesia legally. I know no body can make porn in Indonesia legally. What about an Indonesian that makes porn outside Indonesia. Is it legal? — user4951, Commented Jul 6, 2020 at 11:46

Lag · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-05 06:46:50Z

2

To the extent that the country's constitution allows the legislature to make a law with extraterritorial scope.

(Of course other countries may or may not cooperate with the enforcement of that law.)

There might be as many examples of laws intended to have extraterritorial scope as there are countries.

A non-exhaustive list in UK law:

answered Jul 4, 2020 at 17:00

Lag

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@NateEldredge I agree with your first proposition. The second, however, seems addressed only to those cases where one country needs another country's cooperation as, for example, in requesting extradition. In other cases, any country may enforce whatever laws it might make regarding overseas conduct against anyone found within the country's territory (overseas money laundering comes to mind). See more here: law.stackexchange.com/questions/15620/…
– DavidRecallsMonica
Commented Jul 4, 2020 at 18:42
@NateEldredge I agree with you. However, I wanted to avoid a debate about whether something is criminalised if the law cannot be enforced. Happy to be more explicit.
– Lag
Commented Jul 5, 2020 at 6:39

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