German’s Highest-Ranking Prosecutor on the Legality of Drone Strikes – and Much More | Just Security

7.7.15

German’s Highest-Ranking Prosecutor on the Legality of Drone Strikes – and Much More | Just Security: #1. Broad-Based Jurisdiction. The fact that the case involved alleged war crimes against a German national was, according to the Prosecutor General’s read of the applicable statutes, enough to give the court jurisdiction, even though the case involved a U.S. drone strike far from German soil. (This is based in part on a theory of universal jurisdiction and in part on what is known as the “passive personality principle,” pursuant to which a government can prosecute foreign nationals for offenses that affect the government’s own citizens, even if committed outside the state’s territory.) The Prosecutor General thus declined to prosecute because he did not think a crime had been committed—not because he lacked jurisdiction.