Legal "Black Hole"? Extraterritorial State Action and International Treaty Law on Civil and Political Rights

Authors

Ralph Wilde, University of London

Abstract

This Article considers the significant role that extraterritorial activity is playing in the post-9/11 foreign policy of some States and the idea that this activity somehow takes place "outside" the law or, at least, outside an arena where legal norms apply as a matter of course rather than only when and to the extent that the State involved decides these norms will apply. It begins in Section II by mapping out the extraterritorial state activities conducted since 9/11, covering activities with a personalized object-such as the military action taken in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda-and activities with a spatial (territorial) object-such as the occupation of Iraq. Greater information is given on extraterritorial activities involving the detention of terrorist suspects, asylum seekers, and others as such activities (with the exception of the detentions in Guantánamo Bay and Iraq) have not been given much attention when compared to, say, the high-profile military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Recommended Citation

Ralph Wilde, Legal "Black Hole"? Extraterritorial State Action and International Treaty Law on Civil and Political Rights, 26 Mich. J. Int'l L. 739 (2005).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol26/iss3/1