2003-2004 Survey of International Law in the Second: Universal Jurisdiction

The debate over international jurisdiction has even extended to the United States, where the Second Circuit ruled that the United States, and specifically the State of New York, had jurisdiction over the 1993 World Trade Center attackers, and that jurisdiction did not arise under the principles of universal jurisdiction, but rather under the extraterritorial jurisdiction principle, the protective principle, the passive personality principle, and the objective territoriality principle of customary international law. This survey will cover only the international law implications of United States v. Yousef Facts and issues are limited to that subject matter. This case is a combination of two cases, one dealing with the conspiracy to bomb U.S. airliners in Southeast Asia and the second with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Only the first part of the case dealt with issues in international law, and as such, only that case is addressed in this survey.