Universal jurisdiction

It's only fair; if Belgium is going to make itself the world's courthouse, it might as well make its government the world's government. And if people opt not to vote in Belgian elections simply because they don't happen to live in or have anything to do with Belgium , well then that's their own fault. Belgium can then levy world-wide taxes and expand the already-existing set of world-wide laws. The taxes will be about as hard to collect as George H.W. Bush is for Belgium to arrest, but so be it. In addition to exporting justice, it can export socialism as well. That will never happen of course. Belgium may be solicitous toward the world's downtrodden, but it's not that solicitous. Which in a way is too bad; expanding the reach of Belgium's courts does nothing to make them better forums for justice, but importing a whole new crowd of voters might be just the thing for Belgium's deadlocked politics.

Brian Carney in The Wall Street Journal van 27 maart 2003