In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: extraterritorial sanctions

29 Jul

...the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is quoted as saying: “How do you understand sovereignty in the cyberdomain? It doesn’t tend to pay a lot of attention to geographic boundaries.” Putting aside what may be the fundamental territorial misunderstanding in the quote, I wonder what the evolution of territoriality suggests with regard to this national security initiative. Kal’s book details the various extraterritorial options. Conquering and controlling “cyberterritories” is obviously out of the question. But assuming soverign borders are still operative in this context, Kal’s book suggests several other options. Will...
29.07.09 | |

29 Aug

...extraterritorial crime. In fact, some of the most prominent examples of universal jurisdiction cases commenced in this manner. However, this legal mechanism is quickly becoming a thing of the past with many states closing off this means of judicial access. In Belgium, the consent of the Federal Prosecutor is required for the initation of an investigation into international crimes under Article 16 (2) of the Law on Grave Breaches of International Humanitarian Law (August 2003). Prior to 2003 it was possible for individuals to commence such proceedings. Equally, in the...
29.08.16 | |

03 Oct

Rather than dwelling further on any prediction of what kind of opinion the Court is likely to produce following oral arguments in Kiobel (FWIW, I thought arguments went better for plaintiffs than I’d anticipated), I wanted to highlight what I thought was a particularly interesting exchange on whether the State Department’s views on the ATS were entitled to some deference by the Court. Background first. I’d read the U.S. Government’s latest brief as arguing for something like a case-by-case approach on the question of which extraterritorial ATS cases might be...
03.10.12 | |

28 Jul

...detainees held in overseas military bases besides Gitmo. And if your answer to that question is yes, does it also apply when the United States has even lesser control, such as detention by international, coalition, or foreign forces at our request and encouragement. Is the fundamental difference that Gitmo is essentially “territorial”, while all the other detention arrangements are “extraterritorial”? I know you hint at an answer in the book, but I would appreciate it if you could clarify what you think the answer would be in these other scenarios....
28.07.09 | |

16 Oct

...crime of torture. FF argued therefore that prosecution of Prince Nasser for torture committed in Bahrain would be possible in UK courts pursuant to the extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. In January 2013 FF was granted judicial review permission. As mentioned above, the matter was due to be heard in the High Court of England and Wales on 7 October 2014, roughly one year and 10 months after permission for judicial review was granted. However shortly before, the DPP appears to have accepted...
16.10.14 | |

18 Apr

...here for Spotify) The first three episodes include interviews with Arthur Ripstein (Toronto) on Kant and the laws of war, Lea Raible (Glasgow) on extraterritorial human rights obligations, and Adom Getachew (Chicago) on the efforts by African and Caribbean independence and decolonization movements at regional and international institution-building. Further episodes are planned on a roughly bi-weekly basis. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris , please contact John Heieck at eventsandannouncements[at]gmail[dot]com with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information. Thank you!...
18.04.22 | |

07 Feb

...4. Participation Conditions for Non-State Actors 5. NGO Involvement Conditions on Joining a Treaty 6. Consent to be Bound 7. Reservations 8. Declarations and Notifications Constituting the Treaty and its Dissemination 9. Languages 10. Annexes 11. Entry into Force 12. The Depositary Applying the Treaty 13. Provisional Application 14. Territorial and Extraterritorial Application 15. Federal States 16. Relationships to Other Treaties 17. Derogations 18. Dispute Settlement Amendments 19. Standard Amendment Procedures 20. Simplified Amendment Procedures The End of Treaty Relations 21. Withdrawal or Denunciation 22. Suspension 23. Duration and Termination...
07.02.12 | |

20 Oct

...is that the role of judicial review over extraterritorial targeting decisions is highly limited, at most, even when US citizens are involved. The accountability as such is between the political branches. Many people, including me, have urged the USG to greater transparency as to legal review and standards, not as some supposed legal obligation, but as an important tool for political accountability and legitimacy. (3) The CIA has been given an important diplomatic and political task in conducting operations in Pakistan that, up until recently and perhaps even still today,...
20.10.11 | |

06 Feb

...applicable to extraterritorial actions, at least in these ways — even if one grants, as the US does not, that the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), for example, applies extraterritorially. The US government has responded to the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Execution that it regards his inquiries as beyond his legal mandate because they run to armed conflict, and therefore outside of his remit. I’d add (and I haven’t double checked; perhaps the Obama administration has actually said) that even outside of armed conflict law, targeting of...
06.02.11 | |

14 Mar

[Bill Frelick is the director of Human Rights Watch’s Refugee Rights Program. See part one of his post here.] Since Sale v. Haitian Centers Council judgment in 1993 settled the issue of extraterritorial application of the principle of nonrefoulement in US domestic law, US-based refugee rights advocates after 1993 were left without recourse to US courts. But, writing for the Sale majority, Justice Stevens had said, “The wisdom of the policy choices by Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton is not a matter for our consideration.” Accordingly, US advocates turned their...
14.03.14 | |

11 May

...they make or domestic issues that they raise. So take all this with a grain of salt. Add any cases I missed in the comments, and we’ll turn this post into a wiki. Nonetheless, note that the most cited case US case related to international law that I found comes from the Second Circuit – U.S. v. Alcoa (extraterritorial jurisdiction) has been cited 714 times. BNC v. Sabbatino, the act of state doctrine case, came next with 501 references. Two comity cases, Hilton v. Guyot and Hartford Fire v. CA...
11.05.06 | |

11 May

...precedent in Rasul v. Bush, the district court ruled that RFRA applies to Guantanomo Bay. Here is an excerpt: The defendants argue that RFRA does not apply extraterritorially, specifically, to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay…. The defendants argue that Congress intended for RFRA to apply only to government action in the continental United States…. RFRA defines the government to include, inter alia, covered entities. 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-2(1). In turn, covered entities means “the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and each territory and possession of...
11.05.06 | |