Criminal jurisdiction of states under international law

The term ‘jurisdiction’ refers to the power of States to subject persons or property to their laws, judicial institutions, or enforcement capacity. This corresponds to the three types of jurisdiction, that is, legislative, judicial, and enforcement jurisdiction (→ Jurisdiction of States). Criminal jurisdiction should be distinguished from other forms of jurisdiction arising out of torts or contract, even if the foundation for such actions is an international crime such as torture, as is the basis for the → United States Alien Tort Statute. The exercise of criminal jurisdiction is not necessarily a unilateral entitlement of States (→ Unilateral Acts of States in International Law), unless the crime in question takes place solely on the territory of the prosecuting State by and against any one of its nationals. Even then, however, if the crime is one of grave international concern, other States may possess a valid interest in prosecuting the offender. To further complicate matters, no hierarchy of criminal jurisdiction is found in any → international criminal law treaty, given that these merely list all permissible claims to jurisdiction without granting priority to any. It is, therefore, possible that in respect of a particular crime more than one State may assert a valid jurisdictional claim, in which case several factors are relevant, but none of which alone can be considered definitive and conclusive. A claim for jurisdiction is reinforced where there is a nexus between the claiming State and the location of the crime, the offender, or the victims. In practice, even if said nexus is weak, the apprehending State, or the State to which the offender was surrendered or extradited possesses a much stronger jurisdictional argument, by the mere fact of physical presence therein (→ Extradition).