ABSTRACT
The principles listed above have attracted a wide degree of acceptance as the basis upon which to found jurisdiction. More controversial is the passive personality principle. This head of jurisdiction holds that a state is entitled to found jurisdiction on the basis of the nationality of the actual or potential victim. Thus, the courts of state A might try a citizen of state C for the murder of one of its citizens committed in state B. The principle acquired prominence first in the Cutting case (1886)74 where Cutting, an American national, published defamatory statements in Texas concerning a Mexican citizen. This was a criminal offence under Mexican Law and at a later date Cutting was arrested while in Mexico and put on trial; Mexico claimed to exercise jurisdiction under the passive personality principle. Such conduct prompted a diplomatic protest by the United States and Cutting was eventually released when the victim of the tort declined to continue with the legal action. To that extent the case ended without a settled conclusion although it tended to harden the view of common law countries against such a basis of jurisdiction.
