ASYLUM

in international law, the protection granted by a state to a foreign citizen against his own state. The person for whom asylum is established has no legal right to demand it, while the sheltering state, which has the legal right to grant asylum, is under no obligation to give it. Asylum is thus a right of the state, not of the individual. The right of asylum falls into three basic categories: territorial, extraterritorial, and neutral asylum. Territorial asylum is granted within the territorial bounds of the state offering asylum and is an exception to the practice of extradition. It is designed and employed primarily for the protection of persons accused of such political offenses as treason, desertion, sedition, and espionage. It has become a widespread practice, however, to exclude from this category persons accused of the murder of a head of state, terrorist acts, collaboration with the enemy in time of war, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Extraterritorial asylum refers to asylum granted in legations, consulates, and warships and merchant vessels in foreign territory. It is therefore granted within the territory of the state from which protection is sought. It is mostly a matter of dispute when granted in embassies or legations and is then generally known as diplomatic asylum. Neutral asylum is used by a state, neutral in time of war, which is considered to have the right to offer asylum within its territory to troops of belligerent states, provided that the troops submit to internment for the duration of the war. In ancient times asylum designated a place of refuge or protection from which a person could not be removed forcibly without sacrilegethus, a temple, altar, or, in later times, a Christian church (see sanctuary). Later it came to signify an institution for the protection or relief of some class of destitute or otherwise unfortunate persons; its most common uses in this sense were in orphan asylum and insane asylum. See also safe-conduct.