Preliminary Objections to Extraterritorial Criminal Prosecutions

In the past decade, extraterritorial applications of criminal law have increased at warp speed.This trend is particularly pronounced-and troubling-because authoritarian governments are at its forefront, applying laws that often give rise to grave human rights concerns.In this Essay, we explore one understudied implication of this trend: the impact of rising extraterritoriality on the feasibility and availability of preliminary objections made by criminal defendants.A preliminary objection is a powerful procedural tool, common in international litigation, that parties can lodge at the beginning of a suit to challenge jurisdiction or other initial aspects of a case.Yet as the legal landscape changes in a world of unbounded criminal law, defendants face increasing barriers to lodging these objections.To rectify this problem, we propose a framework to revitalize preliminary objections that will better protect criminal defendants' rights and slow the spread of abusive exercises of jurisdiction.We argue that this framework will also lead to important advances in international legal jurisdiction more broadly.