DOMESTIC JURISDICTION

Abstract

This chapter describes the concept of domestic jurisdiction. The concept of domestic jurisdiction signifies an area of internal State authority that is beyond the reach of international law. However, an immediate difficulty with the concept is the determination of its boundaries. One approach, which has been called the “essentialist” theory of domestic jurisdiction, holds that some matters by their very nature fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of individual States. An example of this approach might be to say that how a government treats its own nationals within its own territory is always a matter of domestic jurisdiction. But this example is belied by the recent vast development in the international law of human rights. If a State were to commit genocide against a minority group of its own nationals, or torture or enslave any of its nationals, then even though such acts might be performed entirely within the territory of that State, such acts would be generally recognized as illegal under present international law. Therefore, to say that any subject-matter is by its nature a question of domestic jurisdiction is to decree that international law will never take legal cognizance of that subject.