User blog comment:Hunter Zealot/Tie ins at the Trial/@comment-1900300-20110516050818/@comment-217683-20110516054355

Actually, the above is only true is Shepard is a Spectre as of the time that he (or she) blew up the system. And even then, as you point out, the Spectre has to prove that the act was done to ensure galactic stability. And remember, the Council doesn't believe the Reapers are a threat. They don't even believe that they exist. So, we have two alternatives:

Either the Council died in the first game, and the new Council refuses to see Shepard. And unless Anderson is the Councilor, Shepard can't get his (or her) Spectre status reinstated. In this case, Shepard is not protected as a Spectre, and can be tried. Or, we have the Council from the first game, or Anderson on a new Council. In this case, Shepard can still be a Spectre, but do we really expect the Council to justify Shepard's annihilation of 300,000 people on the basis of eliminating a threat the Council is convinced doesn't even exist? As such, there's ample reason for Shepard to be tried. Especially since the default setting for ME2 (the closest there is to 'canon' on how the first game went) is that the Council died and Udina is Councilor, in which case, Shepard isn't a Spectre in ME2.

As for why Shepard is tried on Earth, why not? It's perfectly plausible. Multinational entities (such as the Systems Alliance) frequently divide their different functions between different locations. For example, the United Nations is based in New York City. Where is their Judicial Branch? The International Court of Justice (the aforementioned judicial branch of the UN) is in The Hague, in the Netherlands. It's not a stretch to imagine that the Systems Alliance follows the same general practices as its predecessor.