Search: extraterritorial sanctions
10 Nov An Appeal to Address the Failure in Preventing Genocide in Gaza through the International Court of Justice
...(para. 432). An Extraterritorial Duty It should be noted that the duty to take measures to prevent genocide, as an erga omnes obligation, is an extraterritorial task that exists regardless of territory or a specific link to the state in question. Therefore, all states party to the Genocide Convention, which also have influence on Israel through political and economic connections, have a well-established duty to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza. One may argue that the current situation in Gaza does not definitively constitute the crime of genocide. However,...14 Dec Alaskan State Criminal Statute Applied in Canada
If someone sexually assaults a woman in Canadian territorial waters, where would you expect that person to be prosecuted? Why, in Alaska of course. Earlier this week the Alaska Supreme Court rendered an unusual decision in State v. Jack addressing the question of whether a state criminal statute against sexual assault could be applied extraterritorially to prosecute someone who committed the act in the territorial waters of Canada. I’m all in favor of prosecuting persons who commit sexual crimes in Canadian territorial waters. But the question is, by whom and...09 Jun Emailing Does Not Pass the Kiobel Test: US Court Dismisses ATS Case Against Anti-Gay Pastor
Distracted by #ComeyDay and other international crises, I missed this recent U.S. federal court decision in Sexual Minorities of Uganda v. Lively, dismissing an Alien Tort Statute lawsuit on Kiobel extra-territoriality grounds. While using unusually critical language to denounce U.S. pastor-defendant Scott Lively’s involvement in Uganda’s anti-homosexual laws and actions, the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts held: …Defendant’s status as an American citizen and his physical presence in the United States is clearly not enough under controlling authority to support ATS extraterritorial jurisdiction. The sporadic trail of emails sent by...28 Jan Guest Post: Dodge–The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality Does Not Apply to Jurisdictional Statutes
...reach. The Supreme Court’s decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, 130 S. Ct. 2869 (2010), confirms the distinction between substantive statutes to which the presumption against extraterritoriality applies and jurisdictional statutes to which it does not. In Morrison, the Court used the presumption to limit a substantive provision of the Securities Exchange Act, finding “no affirmative indication in the Exchange Act that § 10(b) applies extraterritorially.” Id. at 2883. But notably, the Court did not apply the presumption against extraterritoriality to the Exchange Act’s jurisdictional provision. To the contrary,...
18 Dec The War on Drugs is not a War (Part I): Foreign Military Interventions Against Drug Cartels
...models: the United States’ claim of extraterritorial self-defense, China’s consent-based cross-border enforcement on the Mekong, and Afghanistan’s joint operations grounded in host-State consent. Counternarcotics Playbooks Tested: Military Interventions against Narcos United States: Extraterritorial Self-defence The current U.S. approach appears episodic, externally oriented, and largely unilateral, consisting of a series of air-to-surface strikes against small maritime craft in the Caribbean and, more recently, the eastern Pacific. These operations are publicly justified as defence actions against “narco-terrorist” vessels allegedly linked to Venezuelan or Colombian networks. Since early September 2025, several such strikes...
17 Jul Symposium on PMSCs: Ukraine’s New Bill on PMSCs – A Possible Pandora’s Box for Operations Abroad?
...jurisdiction. However, no investigation against PMSC personnel has been initiated by the Court. Even in countries like South Africa where the legal framework contemplates special provisions for applying its regulations beyond its border, no steps have been taken to prosecute alleged violations against civilians. In the case of Ukraine, serious accountability gaps remain, as there is no clear legal provision ensuring extraterritorial application of the Draft Law on PMSCs. The aforementioned examples, along with dozens of other cases, illustrate that prosecution, accountability, and oversight of PMSC activities during armed conflicts...16 Dec Using State Tort Laws to Combat Terrorism Abroad
million against Iran. But it did so on the basis of state tort laws for wrongful death, battery, and the intentional infliction of emotion distress. That’s right, the state tort laws of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, New York, Texas, Virginia, and the District of Columbia were applied extraterritorially to combat terrorism in Beirut. Notably absent from this decision, or any other Dammarrell decision, is the word “extraterritorial.” There was absolutely no discussion of the presumption against extraterritoriality for this patchwork of state tort laws. I am a strong advocate of...22 May DRAM chips and the puzzling persistence of extraterritoriality
Administrative lawyers think that international antitrust is a particularly interesting form of bureaucratic cooperation. We see a world where antitrust has changed from a focus of international dissention – see the anger over the US assertion of extraterritorial jurisdiction and the effects test after WWII; note that it is the most cited American case in international law – to one where competition regulators meet their foreign counterparts and arguably conform their conduct to international norms, devised, for better or worse, by the regulators themselves. The constraints created by the international...25 Oct The Inter-American Court’s Advisory Opinion on Asylum and Its Impact for the Human Rights of Refugees Worldwide
...human rights system. This will be the focus of this piece. The Inter-American Court, taking into consideration all asylum treaties, and, in particular, the Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees of 1951, has held that the right to seek and receive asylum through recognition of refugee status “sets certain specific obligations upon the State: i) the obligation of non-refoulement and its extraterritorial application; ii) the obligation to allow to file asylum applications and not to push back at the border; iii) the obligation not to criminalise or sanction...
08 Aug Symposium on Unbroken Bond: Tracing the Ties Between African and Palestinian Anti-Colonial Struggles – Peoples’ Rights Without Borders? The Significance of the African Charter’s Liberation Ethos to the Palestinian Struggles
...the situation violates both the Charter and general international law. Any support or cooperation with an apartheid state contravenes both the AU Constitutive Act and the Charter. When the OAU was formed, it called for sanctions against apartheid South Africa and called on its member states to contribute 1% of their budget to the liberation struggle. Other countries suspended their diplomatic relations with South Africa, boycotted its companies, and refrained from doing business with South Africa. Second, the right to self-determination has an extraterritorial reach in the sense that States...