When are you "in the country"?
 

The line I always assumed was that one wasn't "in the country" until one had passed customs and immigration. So where is "one" until that point? For example, let's say I land at EWR but get held up at immigration for a period totalling more than a day. Where am I? The US immigration services would not acknowledge that I am "in the United States" yet and would treat me as such. If I flew from the UK they wouldn't assume that I am still in the UK because I am clearly not, even if I fail to clear immigration (then I would be sent back to the UK) even though I am clearly, geographically, in the US. I would sent back to the UK. The same is presumably true of any other person who has not yet cleared immigration in their country of destination, and their are famous cases of people residing in airports as "stateless" persons for long periods. I can't see any country acknowledging that airside of an airport on its soil is not within the country, and that it is a stateless location through which anyone can wander without recourse or absolution from local laws???

Essentially, I am asking at which point being geographically in a country and being legally in a country resolves itself.

The issue resolves itself when you are both geographically in the country and admitted by immigration. When travelling from YYZ to the U.S., both countries for immigration purposes consider me in the U.S.A. once I've gone through pre-clearance. If I change my mind or the flight is cancelled I have to go through Canadian immigration to be readmitted. For non-immigration purposes however I am still in Canada so should I commit a crime on the airside I will be charged and prosecuted by Canadian authorities.

The pre-clearance bit is a convenient thing that I'm genuinely appreciative of - thanks to our governments and airlines for figuring out how to make that work, thus enabling lots of secondary airports to receive Canadian flights when they otherwise wouldn't have them. But no question about it - you're still in Canada when you're in the little preclearance corrals in Canadian airports. Every now and then I'll see a reference to Canada either giving up sovereign territory or the U.S. taking it in the form of these little corrals, and that isn't the case. They aren't like little embassies or anything.

It seems like there's little question that if you're on the ground, in an airport, you're in that country. If U.S. officials want to apprehend you, they can do it airside or landside - they don't have to wait for you to stand in the immigration queue (or choose to hide out in the toilets).

I don't know about airspace though. If you're on a flight from YYZ to MEX, are you ever in the United States? If U.S. intelligence happens to know that someone wanted for murder in the U.S. is on that flight, can they order it to land in Ohio and board the plane to make the arrest? (Assume it's an AC or Aeromexico jet...)

You are in the US from the time you enter US airspace until the time you leave it. That is not necessarily the same as whether some other country may also have jurisdiction over your actions. If you punch an AF FA after the flight is closed at JFK, you are still chargeable under US (and NY) law as well as under French law.

What if you do it while you're overflying Canada? Can they get in on the action too?

What if they deserve it due to their snooty, superior French attitude?

Depends whether or not you are over Quebec.

Perhaps you should ask Viktor Navorski.

So how does that work on, say the French flight in terms of serving alcohol. I was always under the impression (while drinking on planes under the age of 21) that you were legally in the carrier's country when it came to rules for things like alcohol service, even when overflying countries with higher age limits and/or dry countries. In the US but not subject to their laws?

The alcohol thing is why I always booked my children on BA or VS when flying to the USA when they were between 18 and 21. They didn't want to be, and I didn't want them to be, treated like a child any longer than necessary.

As an aside, being "in the country" to a Londoner means being somewhere in England outside London.

I realize this has nothing to do with the legal/jurisdiction questions being discussed, but I have a map in my house where we put pins of all the places we've been.

Rule is you don't get to place a pin unless you've cleared immigration and done something (went to a meeting, took a tour, had a meal, etc.) outside of the airport/train station/port.