Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the legal ability of agovernment to exerciseauthority beyond its normal boundaries.
Any authority can claim ETJ over any external territory they wish. However, for the claim to be effective in the external territory (except by the exercise of force), it must be agreed either with the legal authority in the external territory, or with a legal authority that covers both territories. When unqualified, ETJ usually refers to such an agreed jurisdiction, or it will be called "claimed ETJ" or similar terms.
The phrase may also refer to a country's laws extending beyond its boundaries in the sense that they may authorise the courts of that country to enforce their jurisdiction against parties appearing before them in with respect to acts they allegedly engaged in outside that country. This does not depend on the co-operation of other countries, since the affected people are within the relevant country (or at least, in a case involving a person being triedin absentia, the case is being heard by a court of that country). For example, many countries have laws which give their criminal courts jurisdiction to try prosecutions forpiracy,sexual offences against children,computer crimes and/orterrorism committed outside their national boundaries. Sometimes such laws only apply to nationals of that country, and sometimes they may apply to anyone.
Some confusion has arisen as to the meaning of "extraterritorial jurisdiction."Cedric Ryngaert, Professor of Public International Law and Head of the Department of International and European Law atUtrecht University, noted that a state asserting jurisdiction over crimes committed in other jurisdictions would still prosecute in the state's own territorial courts.[1]
Diplomatic immunity of foreign embassies and consulates in host countries is governed by theVienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and theVienna Convention on Consular Relations. They remain under the jurisdiction of the host country but are 'inviolable' (the host country's agents may not enter the premises, or detain accredited diplomats).
Status of forces agreements andvisiting forces agreements are in effect in many countries that allow visiting forces to exercise jurisdiction over members of their forces that are stationed in the host country.
Criminaljurisdiction can be of anextraterritorial nature where:
Criminal codes in certain countries assert jurisdiction over crimes committed outside the country:
Many countries have implemented laws that allow their nationals to be prosecuted by their courts for crimes such aswar crimes andgenocide even when the crime is committed extraterritorially. In addition, theRome Statute of the International Criminal Court has been incorporated into domestic law in many countries to provide for theInternational Criminal Court to exercise jurisdiction within their borders.
Economic sanctions against other countries may be instituted under either domestic law or under the authority of theUnited Nations Security Council, and their severity can include measures against foreign persons operating outside the country in question.
In 2017, German ChancellorAngela Merkel andEuropean Union PresidentJean-Claude Juncker criticized the draft ofnew U.S. sanctions againstRussia targeting the EU–Russia energy projects.[4][5]France’s foreign ministry described the new U.S. sanctions as illegal under international law due to their extraterritorial reach.[6]
Extraterritorial jurisdiction plays a significant role in regulation of transnationalanti-competitive practices. In the U.S., extraterritorial impacts in this field first arose fromStandard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States,[7] whereImperial Oil inCanada was ordered to be divested fromStandard Oil. Current practice dates fromUnited States v. Alcoa,[8] where theeffects doctrine[9] was introduced, allowing for jurisdiction over foreign offenders and foreign conduct, so long as the economic effects of the anticompetitive conduct are experienced on the domestic market.[10] The effects doctrine has been gradually developed in the U.S. and then in various forms accepted in other jurisdictions, also in the developing world.[11] In theEU it is recognised based on thequalified effects orimplementation test.[12]
Extraterritorial jurisdiction in the area ofantitrust faces various limitations, such as the problem of accessing foreign-based evidence,[13] as well as the difficulties of challenged anticompetitive conduct arising from foreign state involvement.[14]
The ability of parliaments ofCommonwealth countries to legislate extraterritorially was confirmed by s. 3 of theStatute of Westminster 1931.[15]
InAustralia, extraterritorial jurisdiction of the state parliaments was authorized by s.2 of theAustralia Act 1986.[16]
TheCriminal Code asserts jurisdiction over the following offences outsideCanada:[17]
Article 38 of theHong Kong national security law, passed in June 2020, asserts that the law applies to all persons – regardless of nationality – both inside and outsideHong Kong.[18]
Crimes covered under the national security law include:
In 2024, the People's Republic of China issued legal guidelines stating that supporters ofTaiwanese independence, regardless of their location, could betriedin absentia andsentenced to death by Chinese courts.[19][20]
Under Section 72 of theSexual Offences Act 2003, British citizens can be prosecuted for sexual offences committed against children abroad. Section 72 was used to convict paedophileRichard Huckle on 71 counts of serious sexual offences against children in Malaysia.[21] Huckle was sentenced to 22 life sentences. While no official tally is kept, seven people are believed to have been convicted under Section 72.[22]
TheFemale Genital Mutilation Act 2003 asserted extraterritorial jurisdiction to close the loophole whereby girls could be taken outside the UK to undergoFGM procedures.
TheNuclear Explosions (Prohibition and Inspections) Act 1998 in Section 2[23] prohibits United Kingdom nationals, Scottish partnerships or bodies incorporated under the law of any part of the United Kingdom from knowingly causing a nuclear explosion in or outside the United Kingdom.
In theU.S., manystates havelaws or evenconstitutional provisions which permitcities to make certain decisions about the land beyond the town'sincorporated limits.
The U.S.Criminal Code asserts the following items to fall within thespecial maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, much of which is extraterritorial in nature:[29]
Individuals involved in doping at major international sporting events can be sanctioned by the United States via theRodchenkov Act if American companies are involved in sponsoring those events or the American financial system is utilized by the organizers.[32][33]
In order to deal with the issue ofprivate military contractors andprivate security contractors being used by U.S. Government agencies overseas, theMilitary Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act[34] was passed by Congress to subject them to a similar manner of jurisdiction.
Certain federal property has the status offederal enclave, restricting the application of state laws,[35] but that has been partially rectified by theAssimilative Crimes Act.[36] Similarly, state jurisdiction is restricted onNative American tribal lands.
Generally, the U.S. founding fathers and early courts believed that American laws could not have jurisdiction over sovereign countries. In a 1909Supreme Court case, JusticeOliver Wendell Holmes introduced what came to be known as the "presumption against extraterritoriality," making explicit this judicial preference that U.S. laws not be applied to other countries. American thought about extraterritoriality has changed over the years, however. For example, theAlien Tort Statute of 1789 allows foreign citizens in the United States to bring cases before federal courts against foreign defendants for violations of the "law of nations" in foreign countries. Although this statute was ignored for many years, U.S. courts since the 1980s have interpreted it to allow foreigners to seek justice in cases ofhuman-rights violations in foreign lands, such as inSosa v. Alvarez-Machain.[37] InMorrison v. National Australia Bank, 2010, the Supreme Court held that in interpreting a statute, the "presumption against extraterritoriality" is absolute unless the text of the statute explicitly says otherwise.[38]
Economic sanctions with extraterritorial impact have been instituted under: