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.
Extraterritorial military action
Human rights bodies have clarified that extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs) apply in situations of armed conflict. ETOs arise whenever a State exercises effective control over a person or territory, or has the ability to infringe upon a person’s human rights. In particular, the degree of control exercised in a given context determines the extent […]
Arms trade and weapons export control
International arms sales are a thriving business giving rise to a host of legal concerns for both the supplying and the recipient countries. How much due diligence is a ‘sending’ state required to engage in before weapons are sold? Does state authorization effectively obviate the existence of fault in corporate officials supplying arms later to […]
Surveillance and cyber operations
This chapter examines the extent to and the basis on which human rights treaties apply extraterritorially to state surveillance and cyber operations. The chapter outlines how the traditional models of extraterritorial application, the spatial and the personal, apply to surveillance and cyber operations, examining older case law in that regard. It then looks at recent […]
Extraordinary rendition. A classic example of the USA avoiding ETOs as seen from Europe
This chapter examines the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) extraordinary rendition programme from the perspective of its consequences for European states which provided assistance. Extraordinary rendition, the term given to the kidnapping by US state officials (CIA) of persons suspected of terrorist involvement from the state where they are present and their (involuntary) transport to another […]
Access to medicines and the TRIPS agreement. Recognising extraterritorial human rights obligations
Access to (essential) medicines is a global and shared responsibility. This chapter starts from the basis that states have human rights obligations beyond a state’s national borders, so-called extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs) to respect, protect and fulfil access to medicines. International intellectual property regimes, particularly the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of […]
Obligations of international assistance and cooperation in the context of investment law
This Chapter considers states’ obligations to provide international assistance and cooperation for the protection of human rights in the context of international investment agreements. Investment agreements provide substantive protections to foreign investors, primarily businesses, when they undertake commercial investments outside their state of nationality. Explicit conflicts between investment law and human rights law remain rare, […]
Corruption, human rights and extraterritorial obligations
Anti-corruption and anti-bribery are among issues that States have recognised a regulatory role with respect to extraterritorial acts of their natural and legal persons. Examples of domestic legislation designating bribery and corruption abroad as offences include the 1977 US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In addition, there have been a number of important international anti-bribery conventions […]
International tax transparency and Least Developed Countries
Addressing tax-related illicit financial flows (IFFs) from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is a quintessential human rights issue. With nearly three quarters of LDCs located in sub-Saharan Africa – the region that is now home to the vast majority of people in extreme poverty loses more in IFFs than it receives in foreign aid and […]
Home-state regulation of corporations
The chapter traces a gradual convergence between the regulatory models that underpin these different domains of legal ordering one decade after the endorsement of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). It is argues that the location of business actors and activities within the state’s territorial jurisdiction not only justifies […]
Extraterritorial human rights obligations and international financial institutions
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) provide public financing for development policies, projects, programmes or macroeconomic policy. The effects on human rights resulting from their policies and practices have been debated for the last 30 years, increasingly through the lens of extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs). ETO related to IFIs may be defined along two main axes. […]
Extraterritorial human rights obligations in the context of economic sanctions
Economic sanctions are a discretionary tool of international relations governed by various legal regimes. These trade and financial countermeasures generally seek to bring illegal situations to an end. Over decades, economic sanctions have been targeted to avoid the violation of civilians’ human rights. The article provides examples of extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs) to respect […]
Extraterritorial human rights obligations and sovereign debt
Since the 1970s, sovereign financing has become a predominantly debt- and market-based practice, with a pronounced transnational dimension. A growing number of states, including several advanced economies, increasingly rely on debt, global financial markets and international institutions to fund their sovereign functions. Monetary, economic and fiscal decisions and their human rights consequences, therefore, naturally transcend […]
