The principle of territoriality and transnational criminal participation

Abstract

This article seeks to establish the limits of the principle of territoriality of international law to justify national criminal jurisdiction in cases of transnational criminal participation. To do this, the different systems of criminal partic-ipation are analyzed, the nature of the right to apply criminal law is determined, and the requirements of international law are examined. Next, the principle of territoriality is explored in detail, and, as an excursion, the question of how it can be justified in the relations between States and between the State and the individual. Once the scope of the principle of territoriality has been determined in the case of the individual perpetrator, the constellation of transnational criminal participation is finally addressed. Finally, it concludes by treating the logical-legal difficulties that arise from the com-bination of the principle of accessory with a conception of the rules of application of the criminal law as constitutive of the unjust.