Law-Forums.org

[broehain61]

...But what happens in Dubai may cause you may stay in Dubai to serve time..........
A British couple were put on trial in Dubai for sex on the beach. Found guilty, they were sentenced to 3 months in jail. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/10/19/2003426384

US song writer Dallas Austin pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine in Dubai, but intervention by a U. S Senator got him a pardon, not jail time (he could have been sentenced to up to four years in jail.) http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-07-02-austin-guilty-plea_x.htm

Conservative Emiratis (citizens of the United Arab Emirates) are offended by public displays of affection (holding hands, hugging, kissing are against the law), nudity, drug use, alcohol use, and sex outside of marriage.

Two extremes: Las Vegas, Nevada and Dubai, UAE. Where do your sentiments lie - toward either extreme, or towards the middle?

[alleyne]

...But what happens in Dubai may cause you may stay in Dubai to serve time..........
A British couple were put on trial in Dubai for sex on the beach. Found guilty, they were sentenced to 3 months in jail. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/10/19/2003426384

US song writer Dallas Austin pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine in Dubai, but intervention by a U. S Senator got him a pardon, not jail time (he could have been sentenced to up to four years in jail.) http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-07-02-austin-guilty-plea_x.htm

Conservative Emiratis (citizens of the United Arab Emirates) are offended by public displays of affection (holding hands, hugging, kissing are against the law), nudity, drug use, alcohol use, and sex outside of marriage.

Two extremes: Las Vegas, Nevada and Dubai, UAE. Where do your sentiments lie - toward either extreme, or towards the middle?

you don't get to play by the rules of the country you come from. If you don't know the rules of the country you're visiting, or don't have the respect to live by them, then stay home r suffer the consequences.

Seriously - sex on a beach? Even in the US or England, that would be lewd and lascivious conduct and could end up with jail time.

Serves them right for being so classless and uncouth. They need to be thanking the court system there for not caning or executing them.

[hanan]

...But what happens in Dubai may cause you may stay in Dubai to serve time..........
A British couple were put on trial in Dubai for sex on the beach. Found guilty, they were sentenced to 3 months in jail. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/10/19/2003426384

US song writer Dallas Austin pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine in Dubai, but intervention by a U. S Senator got him a pardon, not jail time (he could have been sentenced to up to four years in jail.) http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-07-02-austin-guilty-plea_x.htm

Conservative Emiratis (citizens of the United Arab Emirates) are offended by public displays of affection (holding hands, hugging, kissing are against the law), nudity, drug use, alcohol use, and sex outside of marriage.

Two extremes: Las Vegas, Nevada and Dubai, UAE. Where do your sentiments lie - toward either extreme, or towards the middle?

you don't get to play by the rules of the country you come from. If you don't know the rules of the country you're visiting, or don't have the respect to live by them, then stay home r suffer the consequences.

Seriously - sex on a beach? Even in the US or England, that would be lewd and lascivious conduct and could end up with jail time.

Serves them right for being so classless and uncouth. They need to be thanking the court system there for not caning or executing them.

Las Vegas you can not get away with what your thinking! & It never stays here it fallows you. & Dubai is a different country so it can NOT compare to the U.S. on their laws. So what is your point???

[golding]

Dubai is insane. (I have been there) Good place for warpies to live, Arab or otherwise.
Vegas is insane too, but slightly more predictable.

[marmion]

I guess I won't go to Dubai any time soon. On the bright side, with harsh punishments like that Dubai should have low crime rate.

[bergh39]

are offended by, IMO. I am not a conservative person and not prudish at all but I think the line of common decency has to be drawn at allowing people fornicate in public. Do we take our cue for what's allowable from dogs and birds? I think not. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel something is not quite right about allowing people to fornicating in public areas. Human beings write books on mathematics and splice genes etc... so that would seperate us from animals and what they do and the mental continuation of that idea is to not allow people to act like animals either. I'm sure there are at least 1 or 2 places outside of ones own home that people who cannot contain themselves to go and fornicate if they want to, like behind a large amount of foliage or in public bathroom cubicles or in ones car etc.... but it does not have to be in the open. Like everything else on the internet that is novel, I suppose now that this story broke, it will be on blogs and youtube and everyone will be doing it 'cos they think it;s the "in" thing to do, and then it will become normalised like porn. Brits have a bad reputation around the world as being loutish, drunk, violent, moronic inbreds (more then Aussies), so adding "public fornicators" to the list does nothing for their PR.

[emek]

There is so much going on here. There's notions of personal freedom vs community rights. There's notions of appropriate behavior in public. There are issues of the favored treatment that celebrities and politicians get. There is also the issue of the use of pharmaceuticals for fun instead of medical pusposes. I bet there are even more issues that I haven't noticed. Finally, there is the actual question of where one stands in the midst of all these issues.

Let me start with the easy ones first, and see where we end up.

I do not think celebrities should get favored treatment because their money can purchase favorable justice. On the other hand, I don't think it should be illegal to use drugs for non-medical purposes. However, non-medical use often leads to inappropriate public or private behavior: that is, it reduces inhibitions and makes it more like a person will engage in activities that most people are uncomfortable seeing in public. You know the old saying: "Get a room!"

Ah well, but who can get a room with an ocean in it? How many of us have not made love on a beach, or at least wanted to? Funny story. Me and my girlfriend decided to take it into the water (Carribean coast of Mexico). We had fun, but we paid for it. While we were busy in the water, someone else was busy relieving us of the burden of our wallets!

But community stardards vary widely. I don't think people should make love in public where they have a decent chance of being seen. I was visiting a lighthouse on the southern coast of Barbados. I parked the car with my wife and three year old daughter in it, and went to investigate. I came around the corner of the building, and there, on the grass overlooking the cliffs and sea, was a couple going at it, bare bums mooning me. I turned around, annoyed as hell because we couldn't see the view. No way was I letting my daughter see this! If I were braver, I would have made a loud noise or something. I wonder if they would have looked guilty or ashamed at being caught?

Bottom line: I'm the the Dubaians in not wanted people screwing in public. On private property -- fine. Otherwise, get a room. I don't care how beautiful it is on the beach.

Working back again to drugs, my feeling is that all drugs should be treated the same. Heroin should be treated the same, in the law, as alcohol. I think that banning these substances is stupid. It creates crime where we really have mental health problems. Being mentally ill myself, I don't think behaviors engaged in due to psychic pain should be criminalized. It's just plain stupid.

As to the balance between personal freedom and community rights, and the diversity of community standards in communities across the world, I believe in courtesy. For me, courtesy is about knowing and following the social norms of your hosts. Courtesy is about not doing things you know will offend others.

That having been said, while I don't think the Brits should be screwing in public on the beach, I also don't think they should have been jailed for three years. A fine should be sufficient. You can't legislate courtesy, I don't think. You have to educate to courtesy.

Yet, I do believe in personal freedom -- as bounded by how personal behavior affects the community. I do not believe people have the right to dump toxic waste on their own private property. Since that waste will leach into our water, we have a vested interest in you not doing something, even though it is your property, that will hurt us. That pain can include things as mild as disturbing people with inappropriate behavior.

I don't think that kissing and hugging in public should be outlawed, even though it bothers me. But I do think Dubai has a perfect right to have a stronger standard than I have, personally.

Where does this put me? Well, I consider myself fairly open-minded and laissez-faire, but I guess, in working though this, I've found I'm a bit more conservative than I thought. However, the common strain in all of this, I think, is that I believe in courtesy, and these stories are nothing, if not examples of extremely rude behavior.