extraterritorial

Word family

• extraterritoriality
  nounC1
• extraterritorially
  adverbC2
• territory
  nounB1
• territorial
  adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Whereas extraterritorial is an adjective describing laws or authority that apply beyond national borders (e.g., 'extraterritorial rights'), extraterritoriality is the noun that names this legal principle itself. Diplomatic immunity is a more specific concept: it grants individual diplomats personal protection from prosecution in the host country, but not every extraterritorial situation involves diplomats — a tax treaty, for example, can grant extraterritorial benefits to a company. Sovereign immunity, meanwhile, shields a foreign state's assets and official acts from being judged by another country's courts; it overlaps with extraterritorial ideas but focuses on the state as a legal entity rather than on specific agreements or people. For instance, 'an extraterritorial clause in the contract ensured the firm paid only its home country's taxes abroad' — here neither diplomatic nor sovereign immunity would be the correct term.

Common collocations

Etymology

Extraterritorial comes from the Latin prefix extra- ('outside') and territorialis ('of or relating to a territory'). The idea behind the word — that certain people or places may be treated as though they are physically outside the country they are in — emerged in early modern diplomacy. The English term itself was first recorded in the early 1800s and became widely used as international treaties and diplomatic conventions expanded.