Criminal Jurisdiction over Armed Forces Abroad

Rain Liivoja explores why, and to what extent, armed forces personnel who commit offences abroad are prosecuted under their own country's laws. After clarifying several conceptual uncertainties in the doctrine of jurisdiction and immunities, he applies the doctrine to the extraterritorial deployment of service personnel. Comparing the law and practice of different states, the author shows the sheer breadth of criminal jurisdiction that countries claim over their service personnel. He argues that such claims disclose a discrete category of jurisdiction, with its own scope and rationale, which can be justified as a matter of international law. By distinguishing service jurisdiction as a distinct category, the analysis explains some of the peculiarities of military criminal law and also provides a basis for extending national criminal law to private military contractors serving the state. This book is essential for scholars and practitioners in international and criminal law, especially in military contexts.

Rain Liivoja is a Senior Lecturer and Branco Weiss Fellow at Melbourne Law School. He is also an Affiliated Research Fellow of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki. For several years, he held a visiting lectureship in international law at the Estonian National Defence College, and currently teaches regularly at the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law. Rain is a Council Member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law and a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War.