History has shown, whether right or wrong, that judges in the United States often will use foreign law and decisions to help determine their opinion in cases. There are the more famous cases for which it applies like the Supreme Court case Roper v. Simmons where international opinion played a huge part in the decision on the death penalty for juveniles. Then, there are the less famous decisions....such as whether or not to allow prosecution of a case or just to throw it out of court. These decisions are often overlooked when analyzing the US Justice system, but for those involved it makes a huge difference.
The reason I bring this up is because a man was recently convicted of rape in Israel for a consensual encounter. See, what happened was this guy (who was an Arab) told some chick (who was a Jew) that he was Jewish. So, they went to some building nearby and, uh, banged out their differences. Apparently though, the lady was none too happy when she found out the guy was not Jewish. She then pressed rape charges and the man was eventually convicted, even though the judge and jury believed the sexual encounter to be completely consensual. The charge was "Rape by Deception" and he will serve 18 months in prison. Apparently, the decision was based on the fact that the judges "acknowledged that sex had been consensual but said that although not "a classical rape by force," the woman would not have consented if she had not believed Kashur was Jewish". Luckily for the guy, the initial charge of "rape and indecent assault" was dropped in a sort of plea deal.
So, there it is. A man was convicted of rape because he had consensual sex. This precedent, if it ever shows it's face in the United States, will have a profound effect on millions of young men. If lying about your religion can get you put in jail, how about lying about your age? Your income? Your living at home with your parents? What if you tell her that you have a "A Doctorate in Awesomeness", but you fail to get in her pants...is that attempted rape?
Ideally the Justice system in the United States would stop seeking guidance from other nations when it comes to applying our law, but as long as they do it is our responsibility to inject our opinion of foreign decisions since it may soon apply to us.
Next time some stinky foreigner asks why Americans butt into their country's business, look at them with an endearing smile and tell them, "Well dipshit, it is because we apparently care about your opinion."
