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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