Recently Vanda Nossëo insisted that some planet that was practicing slavery stop that. A regional governor murdered all his slaves. This was legal under local law. He was still arrested and convicted under galactic law. He appealed. He did not win his appeals.

Or, in clearer language: no.

Rivik complains to all its friends. All its friends are very concerned. Has Vanda Nossëo considered not abducting people? They don't like it when their people are abducted, right?

Galactic law allows for prosecutions for rape, torture, murder, enslavement, and arbitrary deportation or forced transfer of populations. The laws are straightforward and there's a translation available in every Amentan language. Vanda Nossëo will enable local prosecutions if local governments are willing and able to prosecute. The case law and some relevant helpfully-chosen examples are also available in every Amentan language. 

Examples are mostly people who killed members of oppressed ethnic or social or religious groups after learning that the aliens planned to give them rights. There is a lot of case law. This comes up a fair bit.

Rivik's friends think that Vanda Nossëo does not understand.

Vanda Nossëo sends more case law and an accompanying summary to the effect 'yeah, we get that a lot'.

Many Amentan countries walk back their negotiations if Vanda Nossëo will not promise not to kidnap anyone. This does not seem like too much to ask. They don't like it when their people are kidnapped.

This is apparently too much to ask. 

"With all due respect," says an ambassador in a country that is stalling, "this is very unlikely to come up and would affect one or two murderers and no one else if it did. I'm absolutely not saying you're wrong to be upset, but I can tell you the conversation that's going to happen in headquarters and it's: 'some of the countries on Planet 77115-180 are withdrawing because they're upset about section 16 enforcement.'

'How many section 16 enforcements have there been?'

'Two. It's the principle.' 

'77115-180 is the place that wanted colony planets up front with membership, right? Honestly it's easier logistically if they decide not to bother, the top prospective planets on the standard waitlist all have more than a billion interested parties. Tell Terraforming we're maybe not expecting as much demand from 77115-180'.

Look, to me it's really important Celenta feel able to join and get its colony planet, because I think it's good for you. To you, whatever you decide, this decision is really important because it's the country your grandkids will grow up in. On Vanda Nossëo's end, there are precisely-this-many resources to go around and if you don't want them, great, someone else does. So they're not going to strike a big section of galactic law off the books, and they're not going to carve out an exception - they hate carving out exceptions - they're just going to take whatever they were going to give you and give it to someone else."

"Look, it's not that we lose a lot of sleep over Rivikni who can't leave the reds alone. People aren't allowed to do that around here anyway, it takes years to grow a replacement. But before you came here people just plain didn't get kidnapped by aliens, and now apparently sometimes people get kidnapped by aliens. You didn't say, 'oh, well, I suppose Calado can do what it likes, they probably don't like having to act differently when aliens are involved', when they took some of your people. I don't have any trouble believing that Vanda Nossëo's an uncaring giant bureaucracy. I just don't think that's the image they're going for and in most other respects they've been doing a good job of projecting otherwise; why this, why now?"

"Actually if Calado had arrested them that would have been fine, the entire judicial case turned on whether they had arrested them or just snatched them out of the sky. 'Abductions' is a silly characterization here and we all know it. I get why you don't want outsiders making arrests. If you criminalize that here anyway, then I actually am in a position to promise you that it won't happen here. But the laws have reasons for them - good reasons, horrible crimes that I think, reading about them, you'll be glad were punished. And the way to change them, if you think they need to change, is to join and become our judges and policymakers and have fifteen kids until you're the biggest voting bloc we've got. I just - I just feel like people are thinking 'this'll really show the aliens, we won't go along with them now' and it won't, all the people who suffer for it will be right here."

"You add people very fast. We might not outbreed orcs, let alone the next species you find, to say nothing of how you sign on more planets every week."

"I actually made them do a reevaluation of the whole waitlist looking for people who want kids as much as you - I think we should weigh it more. There might be no sense which shows up on the statistics in which you are high-priority, but - I think that means we're setting priority wrong. Anyway, we haven't found anything like you. I don't know if this is the particular thing you want to hammer on, but whatever things you want to hammer on, I think you're going to be in a position to make them happen. 

Would it make a difference if it were only murderers at risk of alien arrest, I can ask the legal side to register some factual determinations about Amentan international law that'd amount to that."

"How would that work?"

"So the categories are murder, rape, torture, enslavement, forcible deportation. What we do is hire a bunch of really good lawyers to go file an emergency petition to the effect that Amentan international law already prohibits those, therefore it should be on the record that Amentans can't get section-16ed because local law is adequate. Except local law doesn't consider killing of reds to be murder and we do, so local law is adequate except with respect to the category of killings of reds. ...or is raping and torturing them legal, I expect a really good lawyer could win this if the penalties are pretty light but there's no way in hell if it's just outright legal."

"I think that depends on the place. It'd usually at least get you pollution violation if you couldn't prove you went through decontam every time."

Ambassador makes a face. "So as soon as we figure out how to relocate the reds, a section 16 injunction breezes through, and until then it'll be talking to a brick wall."

"Why is forcible deportation on there anyway, are you supposed to give illegal immigrants a fruit basket?"

"Whole phrase is 'arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer of whole populations'. Deporting people who committed a crime or aren't citizens isn't relevantly arbitrary. Clearing out a conquered province for your people to live there would count, though. - if we'd gotten here forty years ago would you have wanted us to say to the Oahk Empire - 'that looks pretty ugly...it's legal locally? okay, I guess...'"

"Nobody sings the praises of the last Emperor of Oahk except edgy political science students. But I'm wondering what you'd do if you considered local custom and law a meaningful constraint instead of something you can section sixteen according to your own culture instead."

"We'd only make contact with societies that weren't up to things we couldn't overlook. The Federation runs on a model a bit like that. They're neighbors of yours - haven't said hello, obviously."

"What's their problem with us?" he sighs. "Also reds?"

"They object to the rest of the caste system too."

"...really?"

"I will send you a copy of the Federation charter. They also demand a unified world government, I think just for administrative simplicity?

Honestly the caste system seems pretty strange to us too, but we draw our line about where to stop respecting local culture at rape torture and murder."

"Would you or for that matter the Federation demand a zero rate of unprosecuted murder or are you just making a point of the reds because it's a news item at home?"

"Oh, we've been keeping the reds the hell out of the news at home, that would be a disaster, I guarantee you there'd be university student groups trying to sneak here to take reds home with them. There were journalists on the Rivikni thing but that's because we self-police really strongly on causing crimes here, and I think they're reporting it as some Rivikni eccentricity being appropriately handled. But to answer your question - if another murder came to our attention we'd forward you the evidence from conjuration and trust you to take it from there - you have a really good justice system, and I don't think I'm just jaded by wading through dysfunctional ones. The problem is gonna be when we run across a dead body and no local law to hand it off to. Honestly, if it were illegal to torture reds but the penalty were a week in prison we wouldn't have a leg to stand on, that's an extant system and we defer to those wherever they exist."