A Study Of The Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Of The United States

Jurisdiction is not only an issue concern to sovereignty,as well as an important international legal mechanism to solve the distribution of powers among states.Almost all matters of international law and international relations are directly or indirectly related to jurisdiction.Since the 21 st century,the extraterritorial jurisdiction or long-arm jurisdiction of the US has gradually become a hot issue in international studies.The US is increasingly weaponizing extraterritorial jurisdiction to push through its foreign policy agenda.It has aggressively expanded the scope of extraterritorial jurisdiction and imposed harsh penalties on foreign firms for breaching US sanctions legislation.In addition,the US has imposed secondary sanctions on foreign firms,which are forced to choose between trading with US sanctions targets or forfeiting access to the US market.This dissertation explores the material and normative basis behind extraterritorial jurisdiction by tracing the large-scale expansion of extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US.On the normative level,the analysis of the legitimacy of extraterritorial jurisdiction have traditionally been treated as the analysis of its legality.While the exercise of powers by the legislative,executive and judicial organs of states is a matter for the municipal legal and political system,the extraterritorial application of jurisdiction will depend upon the rules of international law.However,such a framework of legality analysis constituted only by the provisions of international law has certain limitations,which is unable to explain the increasingly severe extraterritorial expansion of the US.Based on the traditional analytical framework,this dissertation proposes to study the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US from three normative dimensions,namely dimensions of procedural legitimacy,functional legitimacy and value legitimacy.On the strength level,it is found that the material factors on which the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US depends have generally experienced a change from military strength,to economic strength,and then to institutional strength,by reviewing the development of extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US since its founding.Furthermore,the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US is closely related to the centrality of the US in the global system and global economy.When the United States was just founded and still weak,the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US was extremely limited.Upon completion of the industrial revolution,the United States emerged as the center of the global system.Its extraterritorial jurisdiction began to expand on a massive scale depending on its strong military and economic strength.Since the 21 st century,imperial structure,sovereign structure and globalized civil society structure have continuously influenced the global system.By virtue of the interdependent global economic system and the centrality or predominance of the US in the field of global technology trade system,financial and monetary system and ideology,the United States has gained more powerful extraterritorial jurisdiction in such fields.In terms of case studies,this dissertation focuses on the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US in the field of international technology trade,international finance and values or ideology after the 21 st century.In chapter 3,Chapter 4 and Chapter 5,detailed case studies are carried out on the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US,including the study of national strength,jurisdiction practice and legitimacy evaluation of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US.Through case studies,we can find that the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the US is faced with serious legitimacy crisis,which is not only suspected of violating international law and interfering in the sovereign affairs of other countries,but also poses a serious challenge to the established order of international jurisdiction.