Jurisdiction

Definition
General Definition: Powers exercised by a state over persons, property, or events

Legislative

Judicial Executive
Jurisdiction to Legislate Jurisdiction to Try

Jurisdiction to Enforce
 Maritime
Terrestrial and Fluvial Continental Aerial Other
Nationals Domain Shelf Open Seas Domain Outer space Territories
Domain

Jurisdiction
 Personal Jurisdiction

Nationality Principle: A state may prosecute its nationals for crimes committed
anywhere in the world

Doctrine of Indelible Allegiance - an individual may be compelled to retain his

original nationality notwithstanding that he has already renounced or forfeited it
under the laws of the second state whose nationality he has acquired.
 Some manifestations of personal
jurisdiction
Article 15 NCC: “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”

Article 16 NCC: “…However, intestate and testamentary successions, both with

respect to the order of succession and to the amount of successional rights and to
the intrinsic validity of testamentary provisions, shall be regulated by the national
law of the person whose succession is under consideration, whatever may be the
nature of the property and regardless of the country wherein said property may be
found.”

Income Taxation: NIRC – Income within and outside the country

 Jurisdiction over foreigners abroad
Protective
Principle
Allows a state to punish
acts prejudicial to its
security, even when they
are committed by
foreigners abroad
Both not yet established as a norm in international law
Universality
Principle Allows states to exercise
universal jurisdiction
over certain acts which
threaten the
international community
as a whole and which are
criminal in all countries
The case of Edward Snowden
 Extradition

Individuals are extradited (that is, handed over) by one state to another state, in order
that they may be tried in the latter state for offences against its laws.

Also includes the surrender of convicted criminals who have escaped before
completing their punishment.

Without a treaty, there is no DUTY to extradite; but there is also no law that prohibits
extradition if a state wants to do so.

Asylum ends where extradition begins

 Territorial Jurisdiction
General Rule: A state has jurisdiction over all persons and property within its
territory

Easier to enforce than personal jurisdiction

Subject to limitations
Exceptions to the rule on territorial
jurisdiction

Foreign states, heads of states, diplomatic representatives,

1. and consuls to a certain degree

Foreign state property, including embassies, consulates,

and public vessels engaged in non-commercial activities

Acts of state
Exceptions to the rule on territorial
jurisdiction

Foreign merchant vessels exercising the rights of innocent

passage or arrival under stress

Foreign armies passing through or stationed in its

territories with its permission

Such other persons or property, including organizations like

the UN, over which it may, by agreement, waive jurisdiction
 Jurisdiction over land
General rule: everything found within the terrestrial domain of the state is under its
jurisdiction

Nationals and aliens, including non-residents, are bound by the laws of the country
where they are located, and no process from a foreign government can take effect
for or against them within the territory of the local state without its permission

Local state has exclusive title to all property within its territory
 Internal
waters

Traditional
Divisions
of the Sea

Territorial
High Seas
Sea
 370.4 km.

44.45 km.

22.22 Km.
 Maritime and Fluvial Jurisdiction

Internal waters of a state is an integral part of the land mass and subjected to
the same degree of jurisdiction exercised over the terrestrial domain.
(Includes: land locked lakes, national rivers, man made canals)
 Public Vessels
Civil, criminal, and
administrative jurisdiction is
exercised by the flag state
over its public vessels
wherever they may be,
provided they are not
engaged in commerce.
Merchant Vessels
Foreign merchant vessels
docked in a local port or bay
is under the jurisdiction of
the local state in civil
matters. Criminal
jurisdiction is determined
according to either the
English or French rule
Criminal jurisdiction over foreign merchant vessels

English Rule French Rule

• Coastal state shall • Flag state shall
have jurisdiction have jurisdiction
 The Case of Wong Cheng
~ People vs. Wong Cheng (G.R. No. L-18924, October 19, 1922)
 What are included in internal waters?

The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless
of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines

-As internal waters, they are subject to exclusive jurisdiction

-Except: archipelagic sea lanes where right of passage may be given to vessels as if
they were open seas
 Contiguous Zones
24M from outermost point of outermost island (12M from outer limit of territorial
sea)

States exercise “protective jurisdiction” over contiguous zones

Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone

Protective Jurisdiction
Prevent infringement of its customs,
fiscal, immigration, or sanitary
regulations within its territory or
territorial sea

Punish infringement of the above

regulations within its territory or
territorial sea
 Continental Shelf

Coastal state has sovereign and exclusive right to explore the continental shelf and
to exploit its natural resources

Coastal state may erect installations and equipment as may be necessary

Coastal state is allowed to establish on the open seas immediately above the
installations a safety zone with a radius of five hundred meters over which it may
exercise jurisdiction for the protection of its properties underneath
What is referred to as the continental
shelf ?
1. The seabed and the subsoil of the
submarine areas adjacent to the coast
but outside the area of the territorial
sea, to a depth of two hundred meters
or, beyond that limit, to where the
depth of the superadjacent waters
admits of the exploitation of the
natural resources of the said areas
2. The seabed and subsoil of similar
areas adjacent to the coasts of islands
 Patrimonial Sea
Also referred to as the Exclusive Economic Zone. All living and non-living
resources found therein belong exclusively to the coastal state
 Open Seas
Also known as the High Seas

Res Communes – not owned by anyone.

Available to the use of all states for purposes of navigation, flying over them laying
submarine cables or fishing. In times of war, hostilities may be waged on the open
seas
 When may a state exercise jurisdiction over the high seas?

1. Over its vessels

2. Over pirates

3. In the exercise of the right of visit and

search

4. Under the doctrine of hot pursuit

Visit and Search
Hot pursuit
 Aerial Jurisdiction
Local state has jurisdiction over the airspace above it to an unlimited height, or at
the most up to where outer space begins

No foreign aircraft, military or civil, may pass through the aerial domain of a state
without its consent
 Suicide Bombings
"First I will ask Allah to bless my mission with a high rate of casualties
among the Americans," he says, speaking softly in a matter-of-fact
monotone, as if dictating a shopping list. "Then I will ask him to purify my
soul so I am fit to see him, and I will ask to see my mujahedin brothers who
are already with him." He pauses to run the list through his mind again,
then resumes: "The most important thing is that he should let me kill many
Americans.”
The 911 Attacks
The Bojinka Plot
Five air Freedom to fly across foreign territory without landing
freedoms

Freedom to land for non-traffic purposes

Freedom to put down traffic originating in the state of the aircraft

The freedom to embark traffic destined for the state of the aircraft

Freedom to embark traffic destined for or to put down traffic originating

in a third state
 Convention on Offenses and Certain other acts committed
on board aircraft
General Rule: State of registration of aircraft has jurisdiction over offenses and acts
committed on board while it is in flight or over the high seas or any other area outside
the territory of any state.

No other state may exercise jurisdiction over such aircraft except:

1. The offense has effect on the territory of such state

2. The offense has been committed by or against a national or permanent resident of such state

3. The offense is against the security of such state

4. The offense consists of a breach of any rules or regulations relating to the flight or maneuver
of aircraft in force in such state

5. The exercise of jurisdiction of such state is necessary to ensure the observance of any
obligation of such state under a multilateral international agreement
 Outer Space
Region beyond the earth’s atmosphere

Res Communes – free for exploration and

use by all states without discrimination of
any kind, on a basis of equality and in
accordance with international law

State launching an object into outer space shall

retain jurisdiction and control over such object,
and over any personnel thereof, while in outer
space or on a celestial body. The state shall be
liable for any damage that may be caused by
such object to another state or to any person
 How a state asserts jurisdiction
over other territories
On the strength of
Through assertion its relations with
of its personal other states or
jurisdiction over its territories, as when As a consequence
nationals abroad it establishes a
of the waiver of Through Through
or the exercise of colonial
jurisdiction by a acquisition of enjoyment of
its right to punish protectorate, or a
the local state over extraterritorrial easements or
certain offenses condominium, or persons and things
administers a trust rights servitudes
committed outside within its territory
its territory against territory, or
its national interest occupies enemy
by aliens territory in times
of war