ABSTRACT
The term "asylum" is used to cover the grant of refuge in premises under the control of a State, outside its territory. This chapter deals with the territorial asylum–the asylum granted by a State within its territory. A gradual change occurred with the development of the institution of extradition in the eighteenth and more particularly the nineteenth centuries, which resulted in the widespread practice of surrendering persons wanted for crimes and fugitives from justice to other States upon request. According to traditional international law, the right of asylum is the right of sovereign States to grant asylum within their territory at their discretion. It is difficult to dissociate the development of the law relating to asylum from certain general present-day trends in the development of international law. The scope and content of a rule of international law must be determined having regard to its existing stage of development and to the law-making processes applicable to international law in general.
