In its famous “Lotus” judgment of 1927, the Permanent Court of International Justice rejected the proposition that international law prohibits states from “extend[ing] the application of their laws and the jurisdiction of their courts to persons, property and acts outside their territory.” Over the course of the past century, states have engaged in extraterritorial practices in an ever-increasing range of domains. These practices challenge foundational principles of international law – and provide a valuable lens for critical exploration of power and legitimacy in the international order.
Much of the vast scholarly literature on extraterritoriality approaches the topic from the outside in, assessing the extraterritorial projection of state law from the perspective of international law and the constraints it places on state authority. The goal of this project is to approach the topic from the inside out. Considering a range of legal systems, the authors investigate the geographic scope that states claim for their own laws, and the mechanisms by which states translate and locally implement principles of international jurisdictional law.
The book consists of contributions presented at the most recent General Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in Asunción, Paraguay in 2022. It includes national reports from fourteen countries, a special report on EU law, and a general report. Together, these chapters illuminate significant changes in the morphology of extraterritoriality over the past century. They illustrate the extent to which extraterritoriality has become embedded in, and has contributed to shaping, the transnational legal order.
Hannah L. Buxbaum
Bloomington, Indiana
July 2024