Reframing Jurisdiction and Extraterritoriality in International Law. The Case of Territorial Non-State Entities

The general aim of this research is to analyse international law of jurisdiction and extraterritoriality as applied to territorial non-state entities (TNSEs), by looking into whether and how these territorial non-state entities may exercise state-like jurisdiction. In doing so, the traditional approach to jurisdiction and extraterritoriality in international law as an exclusive prerogative of states will be questioned through the example of TNSEs. In other words, in this thesis, the traditional reading of jurisdiction and extraterritoriality will be reversed, by placing TNSEs at the core of these concepts, being perceived at the same time as recipients of sovereign states’ jurisdiction (i.e. objects) and potentially exercising state-like jurisdiction (i.e. subjects). The first goal of this thesis is, simply to add to the existing literature on jurisdiction and extraterritoriality a consideration of those often-overlooked non-state actors in the international arena, by prospecting their potential jurisdictional/extraterritorial entitlement. Its second goal, though, is to understand the operability of the concepts of jurisdiction and extraterritoriality if de-coupled from statehood.