Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: US vendors shipping banned books to Germans

I am not a German lawyer, but under general principles of conflicts of law it seems that such an American shipper would be subject to the jurisdiction of German law and German courts. The German government could institute civil or criminal proceedings against the shipper. If the proceedings are criminal, it is possible that Germany could seek -- and even obtain -- the extradition of the shipper to stand trial. For a civil proceeding, the German court could probably not require the shipper's presence, but it could enter a judgment in absentia and then have the judgment enforced in the U.S.

This may seem outlandish, but it is not; the U.S. frequently does the same thing where foreigners are accused of shipping contraband -- usually drugs -- into this country. While we would never ban books here, it is up to Germany to decide what is contraband in its own territory.

There is an interesting First Amendment issue that might arise if the case were to proceed to the point where an American court was asked to enforce a German ruling: can an American court enforce a punishment for actions taken on American soil that would be protected under American law? This is an intriguing issue for lawyers, but the shipper would probably be better off avoiding the mess entirely by not shipping the books. If the shipper knowlingly elects to do business in Germany, then he should understand that he will be required to obey German laws.

(Please note that the result might be different for a shipper who does not know the books involved are banned; you specifically said that this shipper does have such knowledge.)

If the shipper *REALLY* wants to stand up for a principle, he can give this a try. However, he is likely to buy himself a lot of trouble and will likely spend a lot of money on a legal fight that he might lose.