extraterritorial effect of the european convention on human rights in the case-law of the european court of human rights

article 1 of the european convention on human rights provides that the contracting parties shall secure to everyone ‘within their jurisdiction’ the rights and freedoms defined in the convention. at a technical level, the key question is how one should interpret the word ‘jurisdiction’ in article 1. this article plays a key role in the convention system since it sets out the limits on the obligations assumed by states under the convention. the question that to what extent the european convention applies to extraterritorial acts of the states parties is certainly not a new one. but it has received some more attention in the recent case law of the european court of human rights, the case of bankovic (2001) offering on occasion for the strasbourg court to address this matter in considerable detail.