Extraterritoriality

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Extraterritoriality

In international law, extraterritoriality or exterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually claimed on peoples rather than on lands. Extraterritoriality can also be partly applied to physical places. For example, such is the immunity granted to diplomatic missions, military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations. The three most common cases recognized today internationally relate to the persons and belongings of foreign heads of state and government, the persons and belongings of ambassadors and other diplomats, and ships in international waters.

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• Extraterritoriality - Transnational Litigation Blog

  Subscribe for Weekly Updates tlb-logo-h.svg ## Extraterritoriality Extraterritoriality refers to the application of a nation’s law to persons, conduct, or property outside its own territory. Customary international law allows nations to regulate extraterritorially on a number of different bases, including effects, nationality, and universal jurisdiction. Nations generally limit the extraterritorial application of their laws to a greater extent than customary international law requires. For example, the United States applies a presumption against extraterritoriality to federal law and sometimes imposes additional limitations as a matter of prescriptive comity. Some U.S. states have their own presumptions against extraterritoriality, which may differ from the federal presumption. [...] ### A Primer on Extraterritoriality [Updated September 1, 2025] Extraterritoriality refers to the application of a state’s law beyond the state’s borders. Although the word “extraterritorial” often has negative connotations, international law permits a great deal of extraterritorial regulation. In a world where trade, information, crime, and lots of other things regularly cross borders, states often have an interest in… ## Recent Posts ### Ninth Circuit Validates a Theory of Extraterritorial Antitrust Regulation in Global Price-Fixing Case [...] ### Fifth Circuit Interprets Copyright Termination and Renewal Provisions to Apply Worldwide In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has relied increasingly on the presumption against extraterritoriality to determine the geographic scope of federal statutes. This presumption seems particularly strong for intellectual property statutes. Most recently, the Court strictly applied the presumption against extraterritoriality to the Lanham Act (the federal trademark statute) in Abitron Austria GmbH v…. ## Resources Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law § 404-406 (on domestic rules of interpretation) Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law §§ 407-413 (on customary international law) Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International Inc. (2023)

• Extraterritoriality | International Law & Human Rights - Britannica

  extraterritoriality, in international law, the immunities enjoyed by foreign states or international organizations and their official representatives from the jurisdiction of the country in which they are present. Extraterritoriality extends to foreign states or international organizations as entities and to their heads, legations, troops in passage, war vessels, mission premises, and other assets. It exempts them, while within the territory of a foreign sovereign, from local judicial process, police interference, and other measures of constraint. The term stems from the fiction that such persons or things are deemed not to be within the territory of the sovereign where they are actually present. This doctrine was originated by the French jurist Pierre Ayraut (1536–1601) and gained wide [...] The actual scope of the immunities comprised in the doctrine of extraterritoriality depends, according to the circumstances, on principles of customary international law as applied in a particular country, on specific statutory or executive regulation, or on international agreements. The right has been extended to merchant ships in foreign waters. One of the classical cases leading to the emergence of the extraterritoriality doctrine was that of a foreign sovereign visiting a friendly country. It became recognized that no local jurisdiction, whether criminal or civil, could be exercised over the sovereign. The rule was later extended to republican heads of state. [...] the French jurist Pierre Ayraut (1536–1601) and gained wide currency because of its adoption by the classical writers on the law of nations such as Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) and Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694). The word extraterritoriality or its foreign equivalent was not in use until the end of the 18th century. It gained a place in the legal vocabulary through its use, if not creation, by Georg Friedrich von Martens (1756–1821), whose treatise on the law of nations, published in 1788, acquired international repute and was promptly translated into several languages, including English.

• Extraterritoriality - Wikipedia

  Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item Appearance From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia State of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law Not to be confused with Extraterrestriality. | Extraterritorialities | | Earth | | Antarctic Treaty System Diplomatic mission International waters International Seabed Authority International zone United Nations | | Space | | Extraterrestrial real estate Moon Treaty Outer Space Treaty | | v t e | In international law, extraterritoriality or exterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. [...] ## Forms [edit] In the past, pre-modern states generally claimed sovereignty over persons, creating something known as personal jurisdiction. As people move between borders, this led, in the framework of a territorial jurisdiction, to certain persons being under the laws of countries in which they did not reside. Extraterritoriality, in this sense, emerges from the interaction of these two conceptions of jurisdiction, personal and territorial, when laws are applied based on who a person is rather than where they are. Extraterritoriality can now take various forms. Most famous are examples of diplomatic extraterritoriality, where diplomats and their belongings do not operate under the laws of their host nations, but rather, under the laws of the diplomat's nation. [...] ## External links [edit] Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article "Extraterritoriality". Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Exterritoriality". The Extraterritorial Voting Rights and Restrictions Dataset (1950–2020) Columbia Encyclopedia—"Extraterritoriality" Report of the Extraterritoriality Commission in China (1926) Frelinghuysen, Frederick T. (29 April 1882). Extraterritoriality: A Letter from the Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations concerning the judicial exercise of extraterritorial rights conferred upon the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Law Ministry of India Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine | Authority control databases |

• Extraterritoriality - Oxford Public International Law

  1 The terms ‘extraterritoriality’ and ‘extraterritorial jurisdiction’ refer to the competence of a State to make, apply and enforce rules of conduct in respect of persons, property or events beyond its territory. Such competence may be exercised by way of prescription, adjudication or enforcement. Prescriptive jurisdiction refers to a State’s authority to lay down legal norms. Adjudicative jurisdiction refers to a State’s authority to decide competing claims. Enforcement jurisdiction refers to a State’s authority to ensure compliance with its laws. As will be seen below, these distinctions are important because some methods of exercising extraterritorial jurisdiction of States are more likely to conflict with the competence of other States and therefore more likely to raise questions as [...] 2 In the absence of a universally accepted definition, extraterritoriality is an elusive concept that may include a wide variety of practices. Depending on the definition chosen it may encompass, for example, the adoption and adjudication of anti-trust legislation (see also Antitrust or Competition Law, International), the regulation of the export of toxic waste, the bringing to justice of terrorists and drug-traffickers, and the implementation of economic sanctions. The wide variety of matters covered by the concept makes it difficult to draw general conclusions about its status under international law. ## B. History and Context [...] of extraterritorial jurisdiction in commercial rather than criminal cases. In spite of its US origin, the effects principle has also been relied upon by European States, such as Germany and France, and by the European Union (‘EU’) as a justification for their exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction in anti-trust cases, for example with regard to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. There is, however, no universal agreement on the precise contents of the effects principle.

• [PDF] A UNIFIED APPROACH TO EXTRATERRITORIALITY

  1 The noun “extraterritoriality” requires elaboration. See Hannah L. Buxbaum, Territory, Territoriality, and the Resolution of Jurisdictional Conflict, 57 Am. J. Comp. L. 631, 635 (2009) (“‘Territoriality’ and ‘extraterritoriality’ . . . are legal constructs. They are claims of authority, or of resistance to authority, that are made by particular actors with particular substantive interests to promote.”). By its use, I mean that at least one relevant act occurs outside the United States and that the United States seeks to regulate the act abroad. See Lea Brilmayer & Charles Norchi, Federal Extraterritoriality and Fifth Amendment Due Process, 105 Harv. L. Rev. 1217, 1218 & n.3 (1992). To this extent, and as will become apparent throughout the Article, I would view a claim of what [...] against extraterritoriality, which presumes “that legislation of Congress, unless a contrary intent appears, is meant to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”16 The tension vanishes, however, in light of the presumption’s original motivation: to avoid unintended discord with foreign nations.17 A presumption against extraterritoriality made sense when the international law of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [...] (2009) [hereinafter Kontorovich, Article I Horizon]; Eugene Kontorovich, The “Define and Punish” Clause and the Limits of Universal Jurisdiction, 103 Nw. U. L. Rev. 149, 150–53 (2009) [hereinafter Kontorovich, “Define and Punish” Clause]. 12 See Brilmayer & Norchi, supra note 1, at 1223; Anthony J. Colangelo, Constitutional Limits on Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: Terrorism and the Intersection of National and International Law, 48 Harv. Int’l L.J. 121, 158–62 (2007) [hereinafter Colangelo, Constitutional Limits]. 2011] A Unified Approach to Extraterritoriality 4 confusion, supplies courts with an intuitive and cogent blueprint for extraterritoriality issues, and, not least, produces sound results. Broadly framed, extraterritoriality cases raise three types of issues: (1) What is the