Extraterritoriality in Comparative Perspective

February 6, 2025

Extraterritoriality is often understood as an exceptional, sometimes even illegitimate, form of state lawmaking—yet it is pervasive in contemporary practice. Countries around the world rely on extraterritorial regulation to protect local markets, in areas including competition law and data privacy. It is also recognized as a useful strategy to promote international human rights, and to address shared challenges as diverse as transnational crime, tax base erosion, and climate change. The normalization of extraterritoriality as a legal technique, however, has by no means resolved longstanding debates about its place in the international legal order.

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. Containing in-depth studies of fifteen legal systems, this volume provides a critical comparative perspective on those debates. 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.

https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/70850?contents=editorial-content