It was not a civil judgment but a public one handled by an independant administrative authority with the power to pronounce sanctions (French public law is separate from both criminal and civil law and includes administrative law).

It is not so much about free speech: the two guys have been fined for publishing incorrect information about the financial situation of a bank. It is more about financial regulation than free speech. I'm not so familiar with american law, but I'm pretty sure you got related situations (for example concerning the handling of sensitive financial information, or insider trading, etc.)

Disregarding the question of the reality of what they've been accused of, the fine against Mish is illegal considering the right of defendants to translation and an interpretor has not been respected. This decision will be very probably striken down by any real judge that get her hands on this case.

>I'm not so familiar with american law, but I'm pretty sure you got related situations (for example concerning the handling of sensitive financial information, or insider trading, etc.

We have laws that apply to stakeholders and insiders. As far as I know third parties are free to say or even make up anything they want, as long as it's not fraud or libel.

It is all about free speech. Publishing incorrect information about the financial situation of a bank (in the way Mish did it, and even assuming it's incorrect) is protected by the First Amendment in the United States. But it is not in France. See NYT v. Sullivan and the separate but related concept of "neutral reportage."

France, as any other country, decides for itself whether or not it has jurisdiction other than if/when the jurisdiction is decided through treaties.

E.g. I'm Norwegian - Norway claims jurisdiction for certain types of crimes worldwide for Norwegian citizens (quite a few other countries do too).

Enforcability is entirely separate from jurisdiction.

France can claim jurisdiction as much as it likes, but U.S. courts will not as a practical matter (we settled this in the Yahoo case) recognize it and enforce the judgment.

> France has no jurisdiction. U.S. courts will not enforce this civil judgment.

These two things are totally unrelated and I never said the lather would happen.