An examination of privileges and immunities of visiting forces as restrictions to the principle of territorial sovereignty

Abstract

International law recognises several exceptions to the principle of territorial sovereignty. Included among these are the privileges and immunities granted to visiting forces, which like all others imply a restriction on the intraterritorial jurisdiction of the receiving state. The unprecedented stationing of forces in the territory of other states in peacetime, especially after the 2nd World War, has become a permanent feature of the 20th Century cooperation between states. The scope of this thesis is to examine the extent to which the privileges and immunties granted by the receiving state to the sending state's forces, restrict its right to exercise jurisdiction over all persons or things found within its territory. The thesis is divided into two parts. While in the first part, which is largely theoretical, an examination of the principles and concepts involved is made, the second part will involve an examination of their application in current status-of-forces agreements. Having served as a model to all subsequent agreements, particular emphasis will be given to the NATO Agreement. As such, the examination of the provisions of the other agreements will mainly consist in a comparison with those of the NATO model. Moreover, with regard to the types of privileges and immunities, only those concerned with the exercise of criminal and civil jurisdiction will be dealt with extensively. Finally, the meaning of "visiting forces" will include only the military, naval and air forces of a foreign state of the land territory of the local state. Accordingly, the position of naval forces on Public Armed Vessels within the territorial waters and he position of air forces in aeroplanes in the territorial airspace of the receiving state, will be outside the purview of the thesis.