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Courts Have Gone Overboard In Applying The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, Elaina Aquila

Fordham Law Review

The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA), enacted through Congress’s power to “define and punish . . . Felonies Committed on the high Seas,” prosecutes individuals for drug trafficking “on board” vessels. Individuals often raise jurisdictional defenses in U.S. courts when prosecuted under MDLEA, and scholarship in the area argues about whether the Constitution permits MDLEA to reach drug traffickers who are on the high seas. Recently, courts have begun using MDLEA to prosecute foreign nationals located in a foreign nation who are not on board a vessel as conspirators. However, no court has fully examined Congress’s authority to enact …