Criminal Jurisdiction of States over Hijackers of Aircrafts under the Hague Convention: Implications for Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract
Aviation technology faced serious problems as of the 1960s. The most
heinous of the problems has been the crime of hijacking of aircraft. Because of the
the severity of this crime, the international community responded to it, inter alia, by
International Conventions, the most important one being the Hague Anti-hijacking
Convention of 1970. This article is aimed at investigating the relevant provisions of
the Convention on criminal jurisdiction of States Parties to the Convention. More
specifically, the article analyzes issues regarding the assumption of criminal
jurisdiction of States parties, the obligation of states parties in connection with
prosecution and/or extradition of hijackers, the status of extradition under the
Convention, conflict of criminal jurisdiction of states and the implication of the
provisions of the Convention, on criminal jurisdiction, to Ethiopia – a party to the
Convention as of 1979.
In this piece, the author argues that the Hague Convention has left some
critical questions unanswered though it contains several praiseworthy provisions on
criminal jurisdiction of states. Specifically, the Convention does not clearly define the
constituent elements of the crime under consideration; nor does it contain rules
regulating conflict of criminal jurisdiction of states with regard to prosecution and/or
extradition of hijackers. In general, it is hoped to show that the Hague Convention
contains inbuilt deficiencies that must be rectified so as to effectively combat the
crime of hijacking.