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Search: extraterritorial sanctions

08 Apr

[Matthew Sands is a Legal Advisor with the Geneva based NGO, Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) the full judgment on this case is available here.] In late January, the UK Supreme Court published its judgment in the case of Youssef. In 2005, Mr. Youssef had been suspected of involvement in terrorist-related activity, and Egypt had requested the UN sanctions committee mandated under UN Security Council resolution 1267 to impose targeted sanctions on Youssef including an assets freeze and a travel ban. The UK Secretary of State for Foreign...
08.04.16 | |

15 Dec

extraterritorial attacks against non-state actors is one of the most difficult and controversial areas of international law, requiring a careful analysis of state practice and opinio juris. Unfortunately, such an analysis is absent from Deeks’ essay. Instead, Deeks relies on a mistaken understanding of neutrality law, provides little more than a few isolated examples of extraterritorial attacks that have ostensibly been justified under the “unwilling or unable” rubric, and ignores all of the contrary examples. That is a methodologically unsound approach, and it significantly weakens what is otherwise a very...
15.12.11 | |

06 Mar

...to reverse the arguments against extraterritorial application of the ATS made by the Bush Administration in its brief to the Supreme Court in 2008 in the Apartheid case (which the Solicitor General may be reluctant to do). This may be one reason why the Administration asked the Supreme Court not to address the issue of extraterritoriality in its original amicus brief.   One might also add that the amicus brief drafted by Jack Goldsmith in support of defendant corporation Shell seems to have had an effect; Goldsmith and his amicus...
06.03.12 | |

13 Aug

...Union (‘EU’) sanctions (.pdf) in force against Sudan includes travel bans on individuals who ‘commit violations of international humanitarian law or human rights law or other atrocities.’ Among the EU sanctions (.pdf) in force against the Democratic Republic of Congo (‘DRC’) are travel bans and freezing of funds and economic resources of ‘individuals and entities recruiting or using children in armed conflict’ or who are ‘involved in the targeting of children or women in situations of armed conflict.’ Further, in relation to Syria, the EU has adopted an array of...
13.08.14 | |

09 Aug

...begging. A treaty can govern both territorial and extraterritorial matters. According to SCOTUS, federal statutes generally cannot govern extraterritorial matters because this would violate international law's comity presumption against the extraterritorial effect of national legislation. The only way federal statutes can have extraterritorial effect is if international law (e.g., a treaty) allows it. Therefore, the authority of a federal statute to have extraterritorial effect is based on international law (e.g., a treaty). Treaties, on the other hand, do not rely on the authority of federal statutory law to have territorial...
09.08.07 | |

18 Apr

...against foreign companies has been so prominent as to gain the attention of main-stream media such as the New York Times in this story. In short, while the above FCPA enforcement actions against foreign actors (and several other examples could also be cited) did not rely on extraterritorial jurisdiction – because indeed there is none under the FCPA as to foreign actors – they did rely on what I’ve called de facto extraterritorial jurisdiction given the scant connection the bribery schemes had to the U.S. It is here where the...
18.04.13 | |

16 Oct

I may be on the fringes when we see extraterritorial lawsuits as a method for bringing uncooperative partners back to the bargaining table. (If you’re interested, I’ve explored this last issue, international legal theory, the global growth of extraterritoriality, and the decline of multilateral lawmaking, in a new paper.) Given all this – and the changes in law and science that make such suits more plausible than before – Canadians might well be wise to seriously consider extraterritorial transnational litigation as a pragmatic necessity. One last point, before our guest...
16.10.07 | |

23 Mar

in Cambodia until after he was arrested and did not participate in Frank’s detention or interrogation. As for the extraterritorial application of the statute, the Court found that because Section 2251A requires that in the course of the prohibited conduct, the defendant or minor “travel[ ] in … interstate or foreign commerce,” Congress plainly intended that the statute sweep broadly and apply extraterritorially. The language of § 2251A requiring travel in foreign commerce, the broad sweep warranted by child pornography offenses, and Congress’s repeated efforts to prevent exploiters of children...
23.03.10 | |

02 Dec

In Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties: Law, Principles, Policy, Marko Milanovic has written an illuminating and comprehensive analysis of the increasingly contested question of the geographic scope of human rights treaties. Of course, this is a dynamic area of law—as Marko notes, many of the cases he examines are of quite recent vintage—so undoubtedly he will be at work on second addition in a few years. But for now, this book provides a closer reading and a more detailed, one might even say exhaustive, survey of the relevant issues...
02.12.11 | |

23 Feb

...would make a difference given these circumstances. Can prosecutors avoid these constitutional protections by trying him in a foreign court? And then on the other side of the coin, why is a court in Montenegro prosecuting someone for a single murder that occurred in New York? I can hardly imagine that it is an international law violation, and if not, then on what grounds does a Montenegran criminal court have jurisdiction over extraterritorial crimes of this sort? I’m not a criminal law expert, so perhaps others can help me out....
23.02.07 | |

08 Mar

...does not demand anything like the blanket rule in Hape. This is why prescriptive jurisdiction does not play a significant role in the U.S. and U.K. cases. The extraterritorial reach of constitutional rights is primarily an internal question, to be resolved by interpreting the relevant national instruments rather than by reference to international law. Of course, this is where the real problems begin. As Marko points out, there are many reasons why national courts are hesitant to extend rights extraterritorially. These reasons, however, are not external to the constitutional interpretation...
08.03.11 | |

29 Jul

Raustiala’s book is about the scope of constitutional protections applied abroad. I did not find much in the book addressing whether the Constitution imposes limits on the extraterritorial exercise of federal power. Why is that? We have a robust and well-developed Interstate Commerce Clause jurisprudence, but we have precious little guidance as to the scope or even theory of the Foreign Commerce Clause. Can we say that there are constitutional limitations on the exercise of legislative authority outside of our borders based on the Foreign Commerce Clause? I would think...
29.07.09 | |