This section allows you to access several publications on extraterritorial obligations.
At this stage, you will be able to see publications by the ETO Consortium as well as compilations edited by academics (most of whom are members of the ETO Consortium).
Note! We will shortly have larger databases available: a collection of articles and books by academics. And at later stage two databases bringing together ETO-related publications by civil-society organizations and UN pronouncements on ETOs.
Beneath, you can access key publications: those by the ETO Consortium, all open access articles of the Routledge Handbook on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations, as well as some other useful articles.
12 Policies for States on ETOs
This booklet is meant primarily for public officials and their advisers working in international relations. It could, of course, be useful for everybody else concerned with international affairs. Its purpose is to trigger thought and discussion about the added value of extraterritorial human rights obligations for international policies. This booklet will show that ETOs in […]
14 Misconceptions about ETOs
When discussing ETOs with States – but also sometimes with the human rights community – ETO defenders often face some legal and doctrinal misunderstandings that need to be tackled. One of these misunderstandings relate to the attempted reduction of States’ obligations to territory.The following fourteen misconceptions are frequently encountered when discussing ETOs. This booklet aims […]
Conclusions. The future of extraterritorial human rights obligations – The Routledge Handbook on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations
The concluding chapter of the Research Handbook on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations explores the challenges ahead for human rights law and public international law in responding to border-defying challenges such as climate change and pandemics in ways that effectively provide human rights protections to individuals and communities. To realize the promise and potential of human […]
Digitalization: The new extraterritorial challenge to extraterritorial obligations
The rise of the digital society is the defining features of the 21st century, now further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitalization affects our lives, transforming the way we live and work together in many ways: via new means of communication and collaboration; new products shaping key service components; the role of data as driver […]
Nowhere countries: When states use extra-territoriality at home to circumvent legal, human and refugee rights
The opening statement of the Maastricht Principles laments the fact that, ‘despite the universality of human rights, many States still interpret their human rights obligations as being applicable only within their own borders’. Concurring with the Maastricht Principles’ observation, this chapter discusses how two States have redrawn their borders in order to escape or lessen […]
Justifying extraterritorial human rights obligations. An ethical perspective
Spotlighting extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs) is an urgent and timely task. This contribution takes a philosophical perspective, starting from the assumptions: (i) That establishing a firmer normative basis of ETOs—a justificatory theory—could improve their standing in practice, too, and (ii) that this requires a systematic analysis of the grounds on which the persistent skepticism […]
Extraterritorial human rights obligations and responsibility under international law
Extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs) pose important questions as regards how responsibility for internationally wrongful acts ought to be attributed and distributed under international law, especially in cases where the obligations breached are shared by multiple actors. The responsibility of extraterritorial states for human rights violations may take on three forms. First, extraterritorial states may […]
Global human rights obligations
Since 1945, states have made many commitments to respect and promote human rights. They have done so individually through ratification of human rights treaties and collectively through committing to international cooperation in this field. This chapter explores whether these commitments by states represent global legal obligations for human rights realisation. Through analysis of the definition […]
The historical development of extraterritorial obligations
Human rights are declared to be universal, yet the responsibility for protecting these rights – and even responsibility for violating such standards – has been severely limited by territorial considerations. There are at least two reasons for this. The first is the longstanding principle in international law that while a state can always act lawfully […]
Introduction – Routledge Handbook on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations
The Introduction to the Routledge Handbook on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations (ETOs) notes the developments that have taken place in the ten years since the adoption of the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (Maastricht Principles) that have strongly challenged the territorial paradigm traditionally underpinning human rights […]
