Does any legislature purport to legislate for everybody?
<p>Is there any legislator or legislature that has regarded its laws as being of universal application?</p>
<p>It is said in Wikipedia that the Emperor Qianlong was like this, and worked on the 'assumption of all nations of the earth as being subordinate to China', and that 'his final words commanding King George III to &quot;...Tremblingly obey and show no negligence!&quot; used the standard imperial sign off as if the king were a Chinese subject'. I am not sure if he really believed that his laws applied to King George, however.</p>
<p>If Qianlong is not an example, is there another one? Of course, I am not expecting there to be a legislator or legislature that expected as a matter of political fact that everyone would give obedience. It is just whether any had a legal system that, as a matter of pure law, accounted everybody in the world within its scope.</p>
<p>Thanks for any help anyone can give.</p>

<p>The United States of America. For example the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_Libya_Sanctions_Act" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Iran and Libya Sanctions Act</a> attempted to prohibit non-US companies from doing business with those countries, and imposed penalties for non-compliant companies.</p>

international jurisdiction legislature