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15 Law & Pol'y Int'l Bus. 1099 (1983)
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction

handle is hein.journals/geojintl15 and id is 1133 raw text is: EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION

DON WALLACE, JR.*
This symposium is called E.T. for extraterritoriality. Possibly,
it should be called J for jurisdiction, or C of J for conflicts of
jurisdiction, or possibly, J.P. for jurisdiction to prescribe. These
all describe the subject this paper will address. Extraterritoriality is
part of this subject, which is a manifestation of the world as it is, and
an inescapable problem for the international businessman and his
counsel.
There are several reasons why this is so. Today's world is com-
posed of nation-states, and states exercise power. Inevitably there
will be conflicts between exercises of state power, but there is no
world government to resolve these conflicts. At the same time, in-
creasingly large and frequent multinational corporations and
multinational business transactions, the, implications of which may
escape traditional international law scholars, become embroiled in
these conflicts. Nations, especially the United States, promulgate
economic laws and regulations against, in the old canon, conduct
malum prohibitum. Different countries prohibit different things;
nations differ about economic policy, national security, the role of
law, and the reach ofjurisdiction. The contrast between the United
States and others is often great enough to suggest a problem of
interface between different systems.
Extraterritoriality is in some ways a small manifestation -albeit
one of the most real and urgent- of an overriding fact or problem.
Basically, the problem is the relative'absence or thinness of substan-
tive international law-both customary and treaty. As a result, most
law dealing with international matters is made by nations, that is,
national law.
The meagerness of substantive international law is seen in non-
binding international codes recently developed. Some international
*Professor, Georgetown University Law Center; Director, International Law Institute;
L.L.B. Harvard Law School, 1970.

1099

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