The long arm of the law

One aspect of the debate surrounding the Bribery Act 2010 has been its broad extra-territorial reach. By contrast, little attention has been paid to the extra-territorial ambit of the Serious Crime Act 2007 (SCA 2007) and the offences of encouraging or assisting an offence. This might be thought surprising, given these offences possess an equally striking jurisdictional scope to the bribery offences and may be equally important in an international business context. Liability under ss 44, 45 or 46 of SCA 2007 may arise where an English-incorporated company advises a Dutch client, for example, on the execution of a financial transaction in Zimbabwe, even though the client could commit no offence if it was to carry out that transaction. This article offers an overview of the extra-territoriality provisions of SCA 2007 and aims to highlight some of the issues they raise.

The nature of extra-territorial jurisdiction

Before turning to SCA 2007, however, it is helpful, briefly, to say