I suggest you do some reading on the difference between common law and maritime admiralty law. The system of contract law/maritime law has been trying very hard to crush the last few remaining common law court systems. Common law is where all of our human rights stem from, especially in the US. The commercial system has long been in the process of subverting these rights via manufactured consent. One of the results of this is that it doesn't matter what you do or who you are, if they want what you have they can take it. It is not hard under the crushing bureaucracy of federal laws (maritime code) to manufacture pretext to do so. I have seen it myself. Under this system we are simply chattel property waiting in line for our turn to be harvested. The solution is common law and human rights. We have the legal framework, we just have to enforce it rather than being tricked into submitting.
I guess I haven't noticed that as much, again the blissful ignorance of being in North America. I know my family has seen the reach of governments when they "need" land or the likes. This has usually been done in a manner of a bill passing through whichever level of government claims jurisdiction.
My focus here though wasn't so much in how the legal framework of a country would allow this situation. I was more concerned with the idea snowballing; mostly because a government of any size at anytime can make an argument to begin these types of overreach's IMO. I see this first case as an easy win for the
prosecuting persecuting nation because they will have cherry picked the best case to put this forward looking for a win. Once it can be proven that it has legs and can catch the criminals hiding in plain site; they should expand it's reach and find more in broader categories.
Governments around the world have become way too big and they need money to maintain their growth.
I think this intrusive actions will intensify as governments will dig deeper to extract more from its citizens. A few years back they shut down offshore banking for non-residents, now they look deeper.
Governments in most cases are running like a business. A poorly run business, so they do tend to try and scramble to find money in all the wrong places. That is the concern I had with the situation in the OP snowballing.
I brought up what I did because that is exactly how the premise you put forward in your OP is being executed around the world. It is in fact expanding its reach as income dwindles and they need fresh meat. *snip*
Not a problem, I like the way the conversation has evolved on this topic. It is nice to have multiple angles to look at. You've given me a few things to read up on in my free time.
