Erga omnes
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Erga omnes (Latin: in relation to everyone) is frequently used in legal terminology describing obligations or rights toward all. For instance a property right is an erga omnes right, and therefore enforcable against anybody infringing that right. An erga omnes right (a statutory right) can here be distinguished from a right based on contract, which is only enforceable against the contracting party (Inter partes).
In international law it has been used as a legal term describing the compelling obligation by all states to prosecute certain crimes. An erga omnes obligation is owed by because of the universal and undeniable interest in the perpetuation of critical rights (and the prevention of their breach). Consequently, any state has the right to complain of a breach of such universal jurisdiction.
The term falls within the international law principle of universality: the idea that certain activities are so reprehensible that the rules of jurisdiction are waived so that any state may apprehend an alleged perpetrator and try them under their own jurisdiction.
Such crimes might include: piracy, slave trade, operating a "stateless vessel", genocide, and war crimes. Hijacking and terrorism are not widely accepted as rights covered under erga omnes. However, jurisdiction of such acts has been conferred through other international treaties on the subject (The Hague Convention on Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (1971), International Convention Against Taking of Hostages (1979).