Exercise of Substantive and Procedural Criminal Jurisdiction with regard to State Foreign Missions

This article analyses the intricacies of exercising substantive and procedural criminal jurisdiction with regard to the territory of diplomatic missions, consular posts and missions to international organizations from the viewpoint of a sending state as well as that of a receiving state, the relevant legal framework and law enforcement practice of Russia and foreign countries. The article contains a summary of the current concepts regarding legal status of such territories, along with substantiation of unacceptability of defining foreign mission premises as the so-called fictional, or quasi-territory of a sending state. On the basis of analogy drawn from enforcement within the jurisdiction as a whole, the author concludes that exercising criminal procedural jurisdiction by a sending state on the compound of its foreign mission constitutes a norm of the customary international law, as well as formulates the main principles of exercising substantive and procedural criminal jurisdiction at a foreign mission.