Month: April 2021

The connection between the State and its nationals is one of the oldest legal links. For long centuries jurisdiction applied to the person, wherever that was to be found, rather than to a defined territory – indeed, traces of this personal jurisdiction may still be found in the case, common in civil law countries, where a national commits a criminal act abroad (active personality principle). The contemporary manifestation of this possibility, long considered unthinkable in common law jurisdictions, allows for the prosecution of international crimes by the State of nationality of the perpetrator in lieu of surrendering such individual to the International Criminal Court and of major criminal offences, including sex crimes committed abroad; and even serves as the foundation for the criminalisation of active corruption urbi et orbi. Principle of nationality as a base of jurisdiction in law of the sea, 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1997 European Convention on Nationality, Law of the Sea Convention, LOS Convention, Principle of nationality