Having been involved in cases dealing with Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victims Protection Act, I have a thought or two for consideration. Nations should be wary of passing laws that have extra-territorial reach as Chief Justice Roberts forcefully explained in the Kiobel case in April 2013.

I would argue that the presumption against extra-territoriality is a ferocious watchdog of every nation’s sovereignty, no less than an army watching the border. After all, where one nation’s border ends, another’s begins (leaving aside the high seas and the poles). To allow otherwise, invites retaliatory reciprocity. While humanitarian concerns are touching to the soul and who doesn’t love the Buddhists, every nation must decide what’s more important that its sovereignty.

Under law, if one nation can reach conduct in another country, what’s to stop that other country from doing likewise – the Achilles Heel of law – leading to chaos, not order. The Tibet issue is a matter for diplomacy or war. Squatters need to be evicted – perhaps when there is a court with binding jurisdiction on all countries, then law will suffice (but with such a court will come loss of sovereignty).