The New International Encyclopædia/Exterritoriality

EXTERRITORIALITY. The fiction or rule of law by which certain classes of aliens in a country are more or less exempted from its jurisdiction, and are governed by the laws of their own country. The right to this exemption is not absolute, but arises from, and is made possible by, the comity of nations; and the reasons for its existence are to be found partly in the survival of ancient laws, partly in reasons of State, and partly in the purpose of protecting the citizens of civilized nations against the unsuitable laws of more barbarous countries.

Entrance into a country, on which the privileges of exterritoriality are based, may be suspended or entirely refused (see Alien); as, for example, the entrance of a foreign sovereign or prince may be prohibited for reasons of State, or of foreign armed ships or armies.

The privileges arising from exterritoriality are extended particularly to sovereigns, diplomatic agents, especially ambassadors and their suites, family, and servants, and to public armed vessels and armies in permitted transit. The person of a sovereign traveling in a foreign country is inviolate, and he is exempt from the law of the land; but he has no greater powers than he would have at home, and has no authority over any except his own subjects who form part of his suite, retinue, or servants. This privilege does not at any time extend, either in the ease of sovereigns or any other, so as to exempt from the local laws any property, real or personal, belonging to such person except the effects brought with him. Public armed vessels are to be distinguished from vessels of private citizens. Although the latter, so long as they are upon high seas, remain fully subject to the jurisdiction of their own country, whenever they enter within the waters of a foreign country they become, with all on board, subject to the laws of the country within whose waters they are as fully as if ashore. A public armed vessel, however, and vessels chartered to convey a sovereign or his representatives, continue subject, with their crews, to the law of their own country. When ashore the crew become subject to the local administrative law, and if guilty of aggression or hostility can be arrested forcibly if necessary, and punished according to the law affecting the aggression committed. Such transgressions expose the guilty persons not only to arrest and trial, but to complaint to their own sovereigns. The public vessel, however, may not exceed the privileges extended to it, on account of its character, and exercise other rights which it would have on the high seas, such as committing an act of war or the capture of foreign vessels while within the waters of a foreign State. The permission to an army to go through a foreign country carries with it the right to maintain its discipline, and do all other things connected with the passage of the troops which may be necessary to maintain the integrity of the army during its passage. This may extend to the purchase of provisions, but will not excuse crimes or breaches of the public law of the land. The permission is rarely extended, and when it is, it is usually by a treaty. The privileges extended to ambassadors and other diplomatic agents arise partly from the consideration that they are essential to the proper conduct of the business intrusted to him and partly from considerations of respect to the foreign sovereignty represented. They begin when he enters the country and continue till his departure, or until a reasonable opportunity for it has elapsed. For a discussion of them, see Diplomatic Agents.

Analogous to these privileges arising out of the comity of nations are those which are secured by treaty for foreigners from Christian lands in certain Oriental countries, where the prevailing laws and usages are unlike those of Christendom, or are so barbarous that there is reason to fear that justice will not be done, or that it will be administered in such a manner as not to protect life, limb, and property according to the standards of civilization existing in Christendom. By treaties between the United States and China, Korea, Borneo, Madagascar, Persia, Turkey, Samoa, Siam, Zanzibar, and Tonga, the citizens of the United States are more or less fully exempted from local jurisdiction, and are allowed to remain under the jurisdiction of the United States. Formerly the United States had such a treaty with Japan, but upon the opening of that country to modern civilization the treaty was terminated. (See Consul.) Exemption from ordinary harbor or port charges and from local jurisdiction is also ordinarily accorded to vessels driven into foreign waters against the will of their masters, and they are allowed to depart unhindered. Consult: Woolsey, Introduction to the Study of International Law (7th ed., New York, 1902); Phillimore, Commentaries on International Law (London, 1889); and the authorities referred to under Consul, Mercantile; Diplomatic Agents; International Law, etc.