New Zealand court Justice Rebecca Ellis has issued a ruling which strikes a serious blow against the efforts of the United States to seize the assets of entrepreneur Kim Dotcom. After March's United States court ruling which sought to seize Dotcom's assets through a legal construction known as the "fugitive disentitlement doctrine" and efforts by New Zealand's Commissioner of Police to assign Dotcom's property to the Crown, Dotcom and his attorney Bram Van der Kolk sought relief through judicial review of the actions in New Zealand courts.

The decision by Justice Ellis denied the request by the Commisioner to assign Dotcom's property to the Crown and noted that the "fugitive disentitlement doctrine" does not exist in the common law as practised in New Zealand.  Justice Ellis also questioned the constitutionality of applying that problematic doctrine in this case as deprivation of assets would compromise Dotcom's ability to mount a defense as Dotcom is exercising his bi-laterally recognized right to contest his eligibility for extradition.

This decision strikes a serious blow to the illusion of "universal jurisdiction" the United State's Department of "Justice" would like to believe it has globally. The decision of Justice Ellis reaffirms that Kim Dotcom has never under any reasonable definition been what could be considered a "US Person" for legal purposes, and having not opted into the the United States legal regime has rights to due process in his present jurisdiction before Dotcom may be delivered to the land whose courts not only decided they wanted all of Ross Ulbricht's remaining years of life but all of Ulbricht's assets and many millions more dollars than Ulbricht has ever had.