U.S. Appellate Court Rules Maritime Drug Act Cannot Be Enforced in Other Countries’ Territorial Waters

 On November 6, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit concluded that drug trafficking is not an “offense against Law of Nations” and that Congress cannot constitutionally criminalize drug trafficking in the territorial waters of another country, thereby overturning convictions of four people who had been caught trafficking cocaine within Panamanian territorial waters.[1]