A statute with no standard of its own
On this page11
The prohibition is phrased as a list of transactions
It is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase any fish or wildlife or plant. Seven verbs, covering nearly every way something changes hands.
And then the condition that makes the transaction unlawful
Taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any law, treaty or regulation of the United States, or in violation of any Indian tribal law.
The second paragraph adds two more sources
Any law or regulation of any State, or any foreign law, for anything imported, exported, transported, sold, received, acquired or purchased in interstate or foreign commerce.
So four bodies of law are incorporated and none is set out
Federal law including treaties and regulations. Indian tribal law. State law. Foreign law. The Act does not say what any of them requires.
Which makes it structurally unlike every other spine in this library
A limit in parts per million. A burn time of three and a half seconds. A diameter of nineteen microns. A condition of no visible leaks. Each of those states its own test and can be checked against the words.
This one cannot be checked against its own words at all
Reading the section tells you what kind of fact matters and not what the fact is. The answer is always in another rule book, possibly in another language and another legal system.
And any foreign law is the widest of the four by a long way
Not a listed set of countries, not a schedule of recognized regimes. Any foreign law, which means the content of the offense depends on wherever the thing came from.
The attempt limb closes the section
It is unlawful to attempt to commit any act described in the preceding paragraphs. So the borrowed standard reaches an attempted transaction as well as a completed one.
None of which reaches anything in this group
A hook, a swivel, a bead and a sinker are manufactured hardware. They are not fish, wildlife or plants, and nothing on these pages says the section applies to them.
It is the spine here because of its shape rather than its subject
A rule whose assertions are true because of something recorded elsewhere is the same shape as the closure fit table on this shelf, and the containers section is about that.