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EXTERRITORIALITY
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EXTERRITORIALITY , a See also:term of See also:international See also:law, used to denominate certain immunities from the application of the See also:rule that every See also:person is subject for all acts done within the boundaries of a See also:state to its See also:local See also:laws. It is also employed to describe the quasi-extraterritorial position, to See also:borrow the phrase of See also:Grotius, of the dwelling-See also:place of an accredited See also:diplomatic See also:agent, and of the public See also:ships of one state while in the See also:waters of another. Latterly its sense has been extended to all cases in which states refrain from enforcing their laws within their territorial See also:jurisdiction. The cases recognized by the law of nations relate to: (I) the persons and belongings of See also:foreign sovereigns, whether incognito or not; (2) the persons and belongings of ambassadors, ministers plenipotentiary, and other accredited diplomatic agents and their suites (but not consuls, except in some non-See also:Christian countries, in which they sometimes have a diplomatic See also:character); (3) public ships in foreign waters. Exterritoriality has also been granted by treaty to the subjects and citizens of contracting Christian states See also:resident within the territory of certain non-Christian states. Lastly, it is held that when armies or regiments are allowed by a foreign state to See also:cross its territory, they necessarily have exterritorial rights. " The ground upon which the See also:immunity of See also:sovereign rulers from See also:process in our courts," said Mr See also:Justice See also:Wills in the See also:case of Mighell v. See also:Sultan of Johore, 1894, "is recognized by our law, is that it would be absolutely inconsistent with the status of an See also:independent sovereign that he should be subject to the process of a foreign tribunal," unless he deliberately submits to its jurisdiction. It has, however, been held where the foreign sovereign was also a See also:British subject (See also:Duke of See also:Brunswick v. See also: Sultan of Johore, the sultan was ascertained to have abandoned all right to See also:contract with foreign states, and to have placed his territory under British See also:protection. The See also:court held that he was, nevertheless, a foreign sovereign in so far as immunity from British jurisdiction was concerned. The immunity of a foreign diplomatic agent, as the See also:direct representative of a foreign sovereign (or state), is based on the same grounds as that of the sovereign authority itself. The international practice in the case of See also:Great See also:Britain was confirmed by an See also:act of See also:parliament of the reign of See also:Queen See also:Anne, which is still in force. The See also:preamble to this act states that " turbulent and disorderly persons in a most outrageous manner had insulted the person of the then See also:ambassador of his Czarish See also:Majesty, See also:emperor of Great See also:Russia," by arresting and detaining him in custody for several See also:hours, " in contempt to the protection granted by Her Majesty, contrary to the law of nations, and in See also:prejudice of the rights and privileges which ambassadors and other public ministers, authorized and received as such, have at all times been thereby possessed of, and ought to be kept sacred and inviolable." This preamble has been repeatedly held by our courts to be declaratory of the English See also:common law. The act provides that all suits, writs, processes, against any accredited ambassador or public See also:minister or his domestic servant, and all proceedings and judgments had thereupon, are " utterly null and void," and that any person violating these provisions shall be punished for a See also:breach of the public See also:peace. Thus a foreign diplomatic agent cannot, like the sovereign he represents, waive his immunity by submitting to the British jurisdiction. The diplomatic immunity necessarily covers the See also:residence of the diplomatic agent, which some writers describe as assimilated to territory of the state represented by the agent; but there is no See also:consideration which can justify any See also:extension of the immunity beyond the needs of the diplomatic See also:mission resident within it. It is different with public ships in foreign waters. In their case the ex-territoriality attaches to the See also:vessel. Beyond its bulwarks See also:captain and See also:crew are subject to the See also:ordinary jurisdiction of the state upon whose territory they happen to be. By a foreign public See also:ship is now understood any ship in the service of a foreign state. It was even held in the case of the " See also:Parlement Belge " (188o), a packet belonging to the Belgian See also:government, that the character of the vessel as a public ship was not affected by its carrying passengers and merchandise for hire. In a more See also:recent case an See also:action brought by the owners of a See also:Greek vessel against a vessel belonging to the state of See also:Rumania was dismissed, though the agents of the Rumanian government had entered an See also:appearance unconditionally and had obtained the See also:release of the vessel on See also:bail, on the ground that the Rumanian government had not authorized See also:acceptance of the British jurisdiction (The " See also:Jassy," 1906, 75 L.J.P. 93). Writers frequently describe the exterritoriality of both embassies and ships as See also:absolute. There is, however, this difference, that the exterritoriality of the latter not being, like that of embassies, a derived one, there seems to be no ground for See also:limitation of it. It was, nevertheless, laid down by the arbitrators in the " See also:Alabama " case (See also:Cockburn dissenting), that the See also:privilege of exterritoriality accorded to vessels had not been admitted into the law of nations as an absolute right, but solely as a proceeding founded on the principle of See also:courtesy and mutual deference between different nations, and that it could therefore " never be appealed to for the protection of acts done in violation of See also:neutrality." The exterritorial settlements in the Far See also:East, the privileges of Christians under the arrangements made with the See also:Ottoman See also:Porte, and other exceptions from local jurisdictions, are subject to the conditions laid down in the See also:treaties by which they have been created. There are also cases in which British communities have grown up in barbarous countries without the consent of any local authority. All these are regulated by orders in See also:council, issued now in virtue of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1890, an act enabling the See also:crown to exercise any jurisdiction it may have " within a foreign See also:country " in as ample a manner as if it had been acquired " by cession or See also:conquest of territory." A very exceptional case of exterritoriality is that granted to the See also:pope under a See also:special See also:Italian enactment. (T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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