Opinion ID: 781722
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exercise of United States Extraterritorial Jurisdiction and Customary International Law

Text: 65 On appeal, Yousef challenges the District Court's jurisdiction over Counts Twelve through Nineteen of the indictment by arguing that customary international law does not provide a basis for jurisdiction over these counts and that United States law is subordinate to customary international law and therefore cannot provide a basis for jurisdiction. 24 See Yousef Br. at 136-37, 141-48. He particularly contests the District Court's conclusion that customary international law permits the United States to prosecute him under the so-called universality principle for the bombing of Philippine Airline Flight 434 charged in Count Nineteen. Yousef claims that, absent a universally agreed-upon definition of terrorism and an international consensus that terrorism is a subject matter over which universal jurisdiction may be exercised, the United States cannot rest jurisdiction over him for this terrorist act either on the universality principle or on any United States positive law, which, he claims, necessarily is subordinate to customary international law. 66 Yousef's arguments fail. First, irrespective of whether customary international law provides a basis for jurisdiction over Yousef for Counts Twelve through Nineteen, United States law provides a separate and complete basis for jurisdiction over each of these counts and, contrary to Yousef's assertions, United States law is not subordinate to customary international law or necessarily subordinate to treaty-based international law and, in fact, may conflict with both. Further contrary to Yousef's claims, customary international law does provide a substantial basis for jurisdiction by the United States over each of these counts, although not (as the District Court held) under the universality principle. 67 While the District Court correctly held that jurisdiction was proper over each count, and we affirm the substance of its rulings in full, we hold that the District Court erred in partially grounding its exercise of jurisdiction over Count Nineteen — the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434 while en route from Manila, the Philippines, via Cebu, to Japan — on the universality principle. 68 We conclude, instead, that jurisdiction over Count Nineteen was proper, first, under domestic law, 18 U.S.C. § 32; second, under the aut dedere aut punire (extradite or prosecute) jurisdiction created by the Montreal Convention, as implemented in 18 U.S.C. § 32 (destruction of aircraft) and 49 U.S.C. § 46502 (aircraft piracy); and third, under the protective principle of the customary international law of criminal jurisdiction. 69
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71 Jurisdiction over Yousef on Counts Twelve through Nineteen was based on 18 U.S.C. § 32. Yousef argues that this statute cannot give rise to jurisdiction because his prosecution thereunder conflicts with established principles of customary international law. Yousef's argument fails because, while customary international law may inform the judgment of our courts in an appropriate case, it cannot alter or constrain the making of law by the political branches of the government as ordained by the Constitution. 72 Principles of customary international law reflect the practices and customs of States in the international arena that are applied in a consistent fashion and that are generally recognized by what used to be called civilized states. That is, principles of customary international law consist of the  settled rule[s] of international law as recognized through the general assent of civilized nations. 25 The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. 677, 694, 20 S.Ct. 290, 44 L.Ed. 320 (1900) (emphasis added); id. at 686, 20 S.Ct. 290; see generally Ian Brownlie, Principles of International Law 5-7 (5th ed. 1999) (explaining generally the principles of customary international law). 73 It has long been established that customary international law is part of the law of the United States to the limited extent that where there is no treaty, and no controlling executive or legislative act or judicial decision, resort must be had to the customs and usages of civilized nations. The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. at 700, 20 S.Ct. 290 (emphasis added); see also Garcia-Mir v. Meese, 788 F.2d 1446, 1453 (11th Cir.1986) (noting that public international law is controlling only in the absence of controlling positive law or judicial precedent). 74 While it is permissible for United States law to conflict with customary international law, where legislation is susceptible to multiple interpretations, the interpretation that does not conflict with the law of nations is preferred. Murray v. Charming Betsy, 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 64, 118, 2 L.Ed. 208 (1804). 26 The Charming Betsy canon comes into play only where Congress's intent is ambiguous. Attorney General of Canada v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc., 268 F.3d 103, 128 (2d Cir.2001) (stating that United States courts `are not to read general words ... without regard to the limitations customarily observed by nations upon the exercise of their powers.' (quoting United States v. Aluminum Co. of Am., 148 F.2d 416, 443 (2d Cir.1945) (emphasis added))). 75 If a statute makes plain Congress's intent (instead of employing ambiguous or general words), then Article III courts, which can overrule Congressional enactments only when such enactments conflict with the Constitution, see, e.g., Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U.S. 195, 215, 82 S.Ct. 1328, 8 L.Ed.2d 440 (1962) (stating that, [i]n dealing with problems of interpretation and application of federal statutes, we have no power to change deliberate choices of legislative policy that Congress has made within its constitutional powers), must enforce the intent of Congress irrespective of whether the statute conforms to customary international law. Thus the Supreme Court stated in The Nereide, 13 U.S. (9 Cranch) 388, 3 L.Ed. 769 (1815) (Marshall, C.J.), that while courts are bound by the law of nations which is a part of the law of the land, Congress may manifest [its] will to apply a different rule by passing an act for the purpose. Id. at 423. The Court reaffirmed this principle in McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras, 372 U.S. 10, 83 S.Ct. 671, 9 L.Ed.2d 547 (1963), stating that Congress may enact laws superseding the law of nations if the affirmative intention of the Congress [is] clearly expressed. Id. at 21-22, 83 S.Ct. 671; see also, e.g., Comm. of United States Citizens Living in Nicaragua v. Reagan, 859 F.2d 929, 939 (D.C.Cir.1988) (holding that under domestic law, statutes supersede customary international law and that statutes are not subject to challenge on the basis of a violation of customary international law); United States v. Howard-Arias, 679 F.2d 363, 371-72 (4th Cir.1982) (holding that the United States may violate international law principles if Congress enacts federal statutes that conflict with international law). It also is established that Congress may legislate with respect to conduct outside the United States, in excess of the limits posed by international law. United States v. Pinto-Mejia, 720 F.2d 248, 259 (2d Cir.1983). 76 In the event that there is no controlling executive or legislative act or judicial decision that the court must apply, The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. at 700, 20 S.Ct. 290, a court should identify the norms of customary international law by looking to the general usage and practice of nations[,] or by [looking to] judicial decisions recognizing and enforcing that law ...[, or by] consulting the works of jurists writing professedly on public law, United States v. Smith, 18 U.S. (5 Wheat.) 153, 5 L.Ed. 57 (1820) (Story, J.). However, materials beyond the laws and practices of States, such as the writings of jurists, 27 may serve only as evidence of these principles of customary international law, to which courts may look not for the speculations of their authors concerning what the law ought to be, but for trustworthy evidence of what the law really is.  The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. at 700, 20 S.Ct. 290 (emphasis added); see also Tel-Oren v. Libyan Arab Republic, 726 F.2d 774, 789 (D.C.Cir.1984) (Edwards, J., concurring) (relying on The Paquete Habana for the proposition that courts should identify the law of nations primarily from the official acts and practices of States and, secondarily, as evidence of existing state practices, from the writings of scholars). We adopted the teaching of The Paquete Habana and Smith on the appropriate use of the sources of international law in Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232, 238-39 (2d Cir.1995) (quoting Smith, 18 U.S. at 160-61, 18 U.S. 153), and in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir.1980), in which we emphasized that, to the extent that we rely on secondary writings by publicists as evidence of international law, we do so only for evidence of what the law really is,  id. at 881 (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). 77
78 Treaty law also may provide a basis for a State's action independent of the principles of customary international law. A treaty creates obligations in States parties to it that may differ from those of customary international law, and it generally is immaterial whether customary international law points in the same or in a different direction than the treaty obligation. See, e.g., The Tunis and Morocco Nationality Decrees Case, (Great Britain v. France) 1923 P.C.I.J. (ser. B) No. 4, at 24 (Feb. 7) (Permanent Court of International Justice, predecessor of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), recognizing that a country's treaty obligations could supersede the general norms of customary international law for the purpose of determining which questions of nationality fall within the domaine réservé of a State); see also Clive Parry, The Sources and Evidences of International Law 33 (1965) ([I]f two or more States have unequivocally agreed to something by treaty, in relation to the matter in hand nothing other than the treaty has much relevance.). 79 Norms of customary international law can vitiate a treaty's effect only in the rare instance where the treaty or a provision thereof violates one of the few so-called peremptory norms of international law, or  jus cogens.  See, e.g., United States v. Matta-Ballesteros, 71 F.3d 754, 4 n. 5 (9th Cir.1995) (stating, in dicta, that [ j ] us cogens norms, which are nonderogable and peremptory, enjoy the highest status within customary international law, are binding on all nations, and can not [sic] be preempted by treaty); Comm. of United States Citizens Living in Nicaragua, 859 F.2d at 940 (stating in dicta that [a] treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law (internal quotation marks and citations omitted)); see also Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, May 23, 1969, art. 53, 1155 U.N.T.S. 332, 344, S. Exec. Doc. L, 92-1 (Vienna Convention) 28 (stating that a treaty is void if it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character); Ian Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law 627 (5th ed. 1999). A treaty between two nations to engage in the slave trade, for example, would be void; a treaty to engage in the ivory trade, though repugnant to many contemporaries, would not be. 80 Beginning with the Hague Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, Dec. 16, 1970, 22 U.S.T. 1641, 860 U.N.T.S. 105, a number of international treaties have provided that where an individual who has committed an offense proscribed by the treaty is present in a State party to the treaty, the State is obliged either to prosecute the offender (even if the offense was extraterritorial) or to extradite the offender for prosecution by another State party to the convention. 29 id.; see Case Concerning the Arrest Warrant of 11 Apr. 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium), 41 I.L.M. 536, 560 (2002) (separate opinion of ICJ President Guillaume ¶¶ 7-9) (listing agreements); Michael P. Scharf, Symposium: Universal Jurisdiction: Myths, Realities, and Prospects: Application of Treaty-Based Universal Jurisdiction to Nationals of Non-Party States, 35 New Eng. L. Rev. 363, 363-66 & nn. 4-13 (2001) (listing conventions that require States parties to either extradite or prosecute offenders). 81 As discussed above at Section I.A.4, the Montreal Convention is one such treaty. The express purpose of the Convention is to ensure that terrorists who commit crimes on or against aircraft cannot take refuge in countries whose courts otherwise might have lacked jurisdiction over an offense against a foreign-flag aircraft that transpired either in another State or in international airspace. See Montreal Conv., art. 5, 24 U.S.T. at 565. 82 The Montreal Convention, unlike the customary international law principles of criminal jurisdiction (including universal jurisdiction), creates a basis for the assertion of jurisdiction that is moored in a process of formal lawmaking and that is binding only on the States that accede to it. The jurisdiction thus created is not a species of universal jurisdiction, but a jurisdictional agreement among contracting States to extradite or prosecute offenders who commit the acts proscribed by the treaty — that is, the agreements between contracting States create aut dedere aut punire (extradite or prosecute) jurisdiction. Rosalyn Higgins, Problems and Process: International Law and How We Use It 64 (1994). 83 Article 1 of the Montreal Convention provides: 84 1. Any person commits an offence if he unlawfully and intentionally: 85 ... 86 (c) places or causes to be placed on an aircraft in service, by any means whatsoever, a device or substance which is likely to destroy that aircraft, or to cause damage to it which renders it incapable of flight, or to cause damage to it which is likely to endanger its safety in flight[.] 87 24 U.S.T. at 565. Section 2 of that article makes it an offense for anyone to attempt to commit such an offense or to act as an accomplice to one who commits such an offense. Id. Article 7 of the Convention establishes aut dedere aut punire jurisdiction, stating in relevant part: 88 The Contracting State in the territory of which the alleged offender is found shall, if it does not extradite him, be obliged, without exception whatsoever and whether or not the offence was committed in its territory, to submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution. 89 Id. 90
91 Jurisdiction over Counts Twelve through Eighteen is straight-forward, and we affirm both the District Court's finding of jurisdiction and its reasoning. United States domestic law provides a complete basis for jurisdiction over the conduct charged in these counts, independent of customary international law. Nevertheless, contrary to Yousef's claims, jurisdiction is consistent with three of the five principles of customary international law criminal jurisdiction — the objective, protective, and passive personality principles, described at note 24, ante. 92 First, jurisdiction over Counts Twelve through Eighteen is consistent with the passive personality principle of customary international jurisdiction because each of these counts involved a plot to bomb United States-flag aircraft that would have been carrying United States citizens and crews and that were destined for cities in the United States. Moreover, assertion of jurisdiction is appropriate under the objective territorial principle because the purpose of the attack was to influence United States foreign policy and the defendants intended their actions to have an effect — in this case, a devastating effect — on and within the United States. Finally, there is no doubt that jurisdiction is proper under the protective principle because the planned attacks were intended to affect the United States and to alter its foreign policy.
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94 Count Nineteen, the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434, appears to present a less straight-forward jurisdictional issue because the airplane that was bombed was not a United States-flag aircraft, it was flying between two destinations outside of the United States, and there is no evidence that any United States citizens were aboard the flight or were targets of the bombing. The District Court nevertheless concluded that jurisdiction over Yousef for the offenses charged in Count Nineteen was proper, inter alia, under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Yousef, 927 F.Supp. at 681-82. 95 Yousef makes a two-part argument on appeal challenging the District Court's holding with respect to the Court's jurisdiction over Count Nineteen. First, he claims that the District Court erred in holding that the universality principle provides jurisdiction over Count Nineteen. He bases this claim on the argument that, if his placing the bomb on the Philippine Airlines plane constituted terrorism, then jurisdiction under the universality principle is improper because terrorism is not universally condemned by the community of States and, therefore, is not subject to universal jurisdiction under customary international law. Yousef Br. at 143-48. Second, he argues that because customary international law does not provide for the punishment of terrorist acts under the universality principle, such failure precludes or invalidates United States laws that provide for the prosecution of such acts that occur extraterritorially. See id. at 139-141, 148 (arguing that jurisdiction over Count Nineteen cannot exist apart from a jurisdictional basis supplied by customary international law). 96 In light of the District Court's conclusion that Yousef's prosecution for the acts charged in Count Nineteen was proper under the universality principle, and in light of Yousef's arguments both that the universality principle does not provide jurisdiction over terrorist acts and that this failure precludes United States law from proscribing such acts, we (i) first present the District Court's holding as to its jurisdiction over this count, (ii) examine whether the District Court correctly concluded that the universality principle provides for jurisdiction over the acts charged in Count Nineteen, and (iii) examine whether the universality principle provides for jurisdiction over terrorist acts. We hold that the District Court erred as a matter of law in relying upon the universality principle as a basis for jurisdiction over the acts charged in Count Nineteen and further hold that customary international law currently does not provide for the prosecution of terrorist acts under the universality principle, in part due to the failure of States to achieve anything like consensus on the definition of terrorism. However, as discussed in full below in Discussion Section I.B.3(b), we hold that Yousef's conduct charged in Count Nineteen — regardless of whether it is termed terrorist — constitutes the core conduct proscribed by the Montreal Convention and its implementing legislation. 30 Accordingly, Yousef's prosecution and conviction on this Count is both consistent with and required by the United States' treaty obligations and domestic laws. We therefore reject Yousef's claim that jurisdiction over Count Nineteen was lacking and affirm the substance of the District Court's ruling. 97
98 In holding that it could exercise universal jurisdiction over Yousef for Count Nineteen, the District Court stated: 99 The issue of exercising extraterritorial jurisdiction over a criminal prosecution based on universal jurisdiction was also discussed in United States v. Yunis, [924 F.2d 1086 (D.C.Cir.1991)] .... 100 The Yunis court did not decide that universal jurisdiction was insufficient as the sole basis for jurisdiction under the Antihijacking Act.... 101 Endorsing the exercise of universal jurisdiction in the prosecution of an aircraft-related crime, the [ Yunis ] court stated that aircraft hijacking may well be one of the few crimes so clearly condemned under the law of nations that states may assert universal jurisdiction to bring offenders to justice, even when the state has no territorial connection to the hijacking and its citizens are not involved. Id. [at 1092.] 102 The court in Yunis cited to the Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law to support exercise of universal jurisdiction in a criminal prosecution related to crimes involving aircraft. Section 404 [of the Restatement (Third)] states, [a] state has jurisdiction to define and prescribe punishment for certain offenses recognized by the community of nations as of universal concern, such as piracy, slave trade, attacks on or hacking of aircraft, genocide, war crimes, and perhaps certain acts of terrorism, even where none of the other bases of jurisdiction indicated in § 402 is present. Restatement (Third) § 404 (1987). Yousef, 927 F.Supp. at 681 (additional internal citations omitted) (emphasis removed). The District Court then added: 103 The disregard for human life which would accompany the placing of a bomb aboard an airplane with the intent for that bomb to explode while the airplane is in flight and fully occupied with people, or otherwise sabotaging that plane, is at least as heinous a crime of international concern as hijacking a plane. Id. at 682. 104 The District Court thus held, relying on Yunis, the Restatement (Third), and its own analogy between the placing of a bomb aboard an airplane and other heinous crimes that support universal jurisdiction, that the United States on this ground alone could exercise universal jurisdiction to prosecute aircraft-related crime. Id. at 681-82. Like the court in Yunis, the District Court relied on the Restatement (Third) for the proposition that a state has jurisdiction to define and prescribe punishment for certain offenses recognized by the community of nations as of universal concern, including piracy, slave trade, attacks on or hijacking of aircraft,... [and] perhaps certain acts of terrorism. Yousef, 927 F.Supp. at 681 (quoting Restatement (Third) § 404) (alteration omitted; emphasis added). Drawing an analogy between aircraft hijacking and Yousef's act of placing a bomb aboard an aircraft, the District Court concluded that the acts charged in Count Nineteen are considered by the United States and the international community to be `Offenses against the Law of Nations' that support the exercise of universal jurisdiction over Yousef. Id. (internal citation omitted in original). 105 In relying primarily on the Restatement (Third) (and its incorporation into Yunis ) and in expanding the scope of universal jurisdiction to new offenses by judicial analogy to its traditional subjects, the District Court erred, first, in its use of the sources of authority from which a court may discern the content of customary international law and, second, in its conclusion that universal jurisdiction may be expanded by judicial analogy to the crimes that currently are subject to jurisdiction under the universality principle. We address these points in turn. 106
107 The District Court anchored its finding of universal jurisdiction over Yousef in the relevant provisions of the Restatement (Third). It erred in doing so because such treatises are not primary sources of international law. While a discussion of the sources of authority from which a court may discover the content of customary international law may seem rarefied, we address this subject here at some length because the incorrect use of such sources can easily lead to an incorrect conclusion about the content of customary international law. In the instant case, misplaced reliance on a treatise as a primary source of the customary international law of universal jurisdiction led to the erroneous conclusion that such jurisdiction existed over the acts charged in Count Nineteen. 108 The Restatement (Third), a kind of treatise or commentary, is not a primary source of authority upon which, standing alone, courts may rely for propositions of customary international law. Such works at most provide evidence of the practice of States, and then only insofar as they rest on factual and accurate descriptions of the past practices of states, not on projections of future trends or the advocacy of the better rule. See note 31, post. Moreover, while a treatise never may serve as a primary source of law, reliance on this section of the Restatement (Third) in particular is error because it advocates the expansion of universal jurisdiction beyond the scope presently recognized by the community of States, as reflected in customary international law primary sources. 31 The District Court's reliance on Yunis for the proposition that it could exercise universal jurisdiction over Yousef similarly was misplaced because the holding in Yunis was grounded in the text of the Restatement (Third). 109