Limitations on the Extraterritorial Application of Law

The power of a state to apply its law to foreign facts is limited by various bodies of law. Some limitations are imposed by public international law, and a transgression of these limitations may lead to diplomatic protest' or to an unfavorable judgment by the Court of International Justice.2 Limitations may also be imposed by the law of a second state. For example, a court may refuse to recognize or enforce a foreign judgment on the ground'that in its view the court of rendition had given an improper extraterritorial application to its law. Finally, and of greatest importance, there may be local limitations. The power of a state to apply its law extraterritorially may be limited, as in the United States, by a constitution or by other organic law. Even more frequently, such limitations are imposed upon the power of a state which is a member of a federal union either by the union itself or by the constitution or other organic law of the particular member state involved. It is to limitations upon the power of a member state that this paper will primarily be directed.