History Lesson

Contractor Immunity a Divisive Issue
Washington Post, 6/13/04. (Article)
In an early test of its imminent sovereignty, Iraq’s new government has been resisting a U.S. demand that thousands of foreign contractors here be granted immunity from Iraqi law….
Extraterritoriality
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001. (Entry)
…. privilege of immunity from local law enforcement enjoyed by certain aliens….considered…to be under the legal jurisdiction of their home country.
This immunity from law enforcement is reciprocal between countries and is generally provided for visiting heads of state, those in the diplomatic services of foreign nations and their families…
In the 19th cent. Western powers, often through coercion, secured unilateral extraterritorial rights for their citizens in China, Egypt, Japan, Morocco, Persia, Siam, and Turkey in the belief that these “uncivilized” states were incapable of establishing justice….
Extraterritoriality of this type was strongly resented as an infringement of sovereignty and was abolished in Japan in 1899, in Turkey in 1923, and in Egypt in 1949….