PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW:

PRINCIPLES OF
JURISDICTION
GROUP 2– REPORTER 8
CAMPO, ELMA E.
CATULIN, SHENDY ANNE L. FERNANDEZ,
RIZZI JAMILLE
MANGULAD, HAZELLE B.
PAGADUAN, JESSA MARIE C.
JURISDICTI
PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW:

ON
 WHAT IS JURISDICTION?

The power or authority exercised by a State

over land, persons, property transactions and
events. (Nachura)
 WHAT IS JURISDICTION?

The authority to affect legal interests.

Corresponding to the powers of government,
jurisdiction can be: (Bernas)
LEGISLATIVE JURISDICTION- prescribes norms
of conduct
EXECUTIVE JURISDICTION- enforces the norms
prescribed
JUDICIAL JURISDICTIION- adjudicates the
conduct
 SCOPE OF JURISDICTION

The scope of a State’s jurisdiction over a

person, thing, or event (i.e land, persons, ships
at sea, airships on flight, property,
transactions) depends on the interest of the
state in affecting the subject in question.
 LIMITATION OF JURISDICTION

Public International law limits itself to criminal

rather than civil jurisdiction.

Civil Jurisdiction is a subject for private

international law or conflicts of law.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
1. TERRITORIAL-the place where the crime is committed;
2. NATIONAL- the nationality of the offender;
3. PROTECTIVE-whether the national interest is injured;
4. UNIVERSAL- in any forum that obtains physical custody of
the perpetuator of certain offenses that are heinous and
harmful to humanity; and,
5. PASSIVE PERSONAL-the nationality of the victim.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
TERRITORIALITY PRINCIPLE
 The fundamental source of jurisdiction is
sovereignty over territory.
 A state has absolute, but not necessarily
exclusive, power to prescribe, adjudicate, and
enforce rules for conduct that occurs within its
territory.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
TERRITORIALITY PRINCIPLE
 The Third Restatement summarizes the
rules on boundaries. (Bernas)
 To have jurisdiction, occupation is not
enough, control must also be established (Las
Palmas Case)
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
TERRITORIALITY PRINCIPLE
 Exceptionally, it may have jurisdiction over
persons and acts done outside its territory
depending on the kind of jurisdiction it
invokes.
While there is no territorial limit on the
exercise of jurisdiction over civil matters…
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
TERRITORIALITY PRINCIPLE
 A State as a general rule, has criminal jurisdiction only
over offenses committed within its territory, except over:
i. Continuing offenses
ii. Acts prejudicial to the national security/ States vital
interests
iii. Universal crimes
iv. Offenses covered by special agreement (obsolete)
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
TERRITORIALITY PRINCIPLE
 EFFECTS DOCTRINE
A State also has jurisdiction over acts occuring
outside its territory but having effects within it. (Lotus
case)
Principles: a) Subjective- jurisdiction to prosecute
and punish for crime commenced within the state; and,
b) Objective- such jurisdiction of a State doesn’t come into
conflict with a principle in international law.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
NATIONALITY PRINCIPLE
 The State has jurisdiction over its nationals
anywhere in the world, based on the theory that a
national is entitled to the protection of the State
wherever he may be, and thus, is bound to it by duty
of obedience and allegiance, unless he is prepared
to renounce his nationality.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
NATIONALITY PRINCIPLE
 This applies to civil matters, e.g Art 15, Civil Code
which provides: “Laws relating to family rights and
duties, or to the status, condition and legal capacity
of persons are binding upon citizens of the
Philippines even though living abroad”; and also in
taxation.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
NATIONALITY PRINCIPLE
 This principle does not, however, apply to
criminal offenses.
Case: Blackmer vs US, 284 US 421 where the US
Supreme Court upheld a judgment for contempt
against American who refused to return from France
to testify in the US
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PROTECTIVE PRINCIPLE
 A State may exercise jurisdiction over
conduct outside its territory that threatens its
security as that conduct is generally
recognized as criminal by states in the
international community.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PROTECTIVE PRINCIPLE
 It excludes acts committed in exercise of the
liberty guaranteed an alien by law of the place
where the act was committed.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PROTECTIVE PRINCIPLE
 Examples given of acts covered by this
principle are plots to overthrow the
government, forging its currency, and plot to
break its immigration regulations.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
UNIVERSALITY PRINCIPLE
 It recognizes that certain activities, universally
dangerous to states and their subjects, require
authority in all community members to punish such
acts wherever they may occur, even absent a link
between the state and the parties or the acts in
question.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
UNIVERSALITY PRINCIPLE
 Now, the principle covers not just piracy but
also genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes, aircraft piracy and terrorism. There is
also a growing support for universal
jurisdiction over crimes against human rights.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
UNIVERSALITY PRINCIPLE
 The statute of the new International Court
defines these crimes, thus:
a) Article 6: Genocide;
b) Article 7: Crimes against humanity; and,
c) Article 8: War crimes
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PASSIVE PERSONALITY PRINCIPLE
 State exercises jurisdiction over crimes
against its own nationals even if committed
outside territory. This principle may be
resorted to if the others are not applicable.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PASSIVE PERSONALITY PRINCIPLE
 Allows states, in limited cases, to claim
jurisdiction to try a foreign national for
offenses committed abroad that affect its own
citizens.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PASSIVE PERSONALITY PRINCIPLE
 This principle has been used by the US to
prosecute terrorists and to even arrest them.
Case cited: Conviction of the de facto leader
Panama, Manuel Noriega (1989-90) by an American
Court of cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and
money laundering.
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PASSIVE PERSONALITY PRINCIPLE
 This principle appears in a number of
conventions, including the International Convention
Against the Taking of Hostages (1979), the
Convention on the Prevention of Crimes Against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (1984).
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PASSIVE PERSONALITY PRINCIPLE
 Included in the hostages and aircraft-
hijacking conventions and the Convention on
the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel
(1994).
 PRINCIPLES OF JURISDICTION
PASSIVE PERSONALITY PRINCIPLE
 Invoked by a state in cases where an alien
has committed an act abroad deemed
prejudicial to that state’s interests, as distinct
from harming the interests of nationals.
 CONFLICTS OF JURISDICTION

Since there are various accepted principles

for assuming jurisdiction, more than one state
may have a valid claim to jurisdiction.
US courts developed three modes of resolving
conflict of jurisdiction:
 1. THE BALANCING TEST
Requisites:
An actual or intended effect on foreign commerce;
The effect sufficiently large to present a cognizable
injury to the plaintiffs; and,
The interest of and link to are sufficiently strong, vis-
à-vis those of other nations, to justify an assertion of
extraordinary authority.
 2. INTERNATIONAL COMITY
 Determined by evaluating various factors such as the
link of the activity to the territory of the regulating state,
the connection, between parties for the activity to be
regulated, the character of the activity to be regulated,
the existence of justified expectations that might be
protected or hurt by the regulation, the likelihood of
conflict with regulation by another estate.
 3. FORUM NON CONVENIENS
If in the whole circumstances of the case it be
discovered that there is a real unfairness to one of the
suitors in permitting the choice of a forum which is not
the natural or proper forum, either on the ground of
convenience of trial or the residence or domicile of
parties or of its being the locus contractus or locus
solutionis, then the doctrine of forum non conveniens is
properly applied.
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