Active Nationality Principle

Doctrine International Law Preferred

Principle allowing a State to prescribe and enforce its criminal law over its own nationals for conduct abroad.

Independent referenceNot an official or legal definition
Sources citedSee the sources at the end of this page
Status Under reviewLast updated 11 October 2026
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Definition

In plain language

Under this principle a country can apply its own criminal law to its citizens even when the offence took place in another country. The link is the offender's nationality, not where the act happened.

Academic definition

The principle is one of the accepted bases of prescriptive jurisdiction alongside territoriality, the passive personality principle, the protective principle and universality. The Permanent Court's 1927 Lotus judgment treated a State's freedom to extend its laws as limited only by prohibitive rules of international law, and the nationality link is widely regarded as a settled ground, especially for serious offences. Civil law States generally apply it more broadly than common law States, which traditionally relied on territoriality.

Classification

Term type
Doctrine
Category
International Law
Subject field
International Law
Subfield
Jurisdiction of States
Difficulty level
Expert
Grammatical category
noun phrase

Language variants

Alternative terms
  • nationality principle
  • active personality principle
Non-preferred terms
  • citizenship jurisdiction
Abbreviations
  • not_applicable
Acronyms
  • not_applicable
Native terms
  • principe de la personnalité active (French)
Transliteration
not_applicable
Pronunciation
not_applicable

Context

Legal effect: Context-Dependent

Scope

Covers jurisdiction based on the nationality of the alleged offender; jurisdiction based on the victim's nationality, on protection of State interests or on the gravity of the crime are separate bases.

Legal context

No single treaty establishes the principle, but many conventions require States to establish jurisdiction over their nationals, for example Article 5(1)(b) of the Convention against Torture and Article 4 of the 1970 Hague Convention on aircraft hijacking. The 1935 Harvard Research Draft on Jurisdiction listed it among the recognised heads, and extradition law commonly links to it through the nationality exception to extradition.

Diplomatic context

States invoke it to prosecute citizens for offences such as bribery of foreign officials, sexual offences against children abroad, or war crimes, and it often accompanies the refusal to extradite nationals combined with an obligation to prosecute them at home.

Institutional context

Applied by national courts and prosecutors; the UN Sixth Committee, the ILC and treaty bodies discuss its use within extraterritorial jurisdiction.

Historical context

Continental European codes of the nineteenth century gave the nationality link wide scope, while the 1927 Lotus case in the Permanent Court of International Justice became the classic reference on the limits of State jurisdiction.

Why it matters

It lets a State hold its own citizens, companies or officials accountable for conduct overseas and it underpins the aut dedere aut judicare obligation when a State will not extradite nationals.

Usage

Register: Legal

Usage note

'Active' refers to the offender's nationality; the 'passive' version concerns the victim. The glossary title keeps the term in this order and adjective form.

Example

Under the active nationality principle, State A prosecuted its citizen for bribery committed entirely in State B.

Example scenario

A national of State A sexually abuses a child while visiting State B. State A's criminal code covers offences by its nationals abroad, so State A's prosecutors try the case at home even though no act occurred on its territory.

Common misuse

Confusing it with the passive personality principle, which depends on the victim's nationality and is more controversial.

Not to be confused with

  • Passive personality principle (victim's nationality)
  • Territorial jurisdiction
  • Universal jurisdiction

Sources

  1. S.S. 'Lotus' (France v. Turkey), Permanent Court of International Justice, Judgment of 7 September 1927, Permanent Court of International Justice, not_found_in_source. not_found_in_source
  2. Official definition. not_found_in_source
  3. Treaty reference. not_found_in_source
  4. Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law. not_found_in_source
  5. Harvard Research in International Law, Draft Convention on Jurisdiction with Respect to Crime (1935). not_found_in_source

Source type: Court or Tribunal. Source reliability: Primary.

This entry is an independent reference definition, not an official or legally binding text. Where an official definition exists, it is linked above and is authoritative. Read our methodology.

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