Southern Pacific Railway Company v Gonzalez

• Date: 01 January 1936
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court
• Docket Number: Case No. 66

Supreme Court of Arizona

Case No. 66

Southern Pacific Railway Company

and

Gonzalez

Jurisdiction — Limits of — Exterritorial Effect of — The Law of the United States.

An extreme formulation of the principle of the territoriality of the law was stated by the Supreme Court of Arizona in Southern Pacific Railway Company v. Gonzalez, 48 Ariz. 260 (Oct. 1936). The case concerned the liability of a Mexican railroad corporation as the initial carrier of freight from Mexico to points within the United States, for damage to the freight which took place within Mexican territory. The judgment of the court that there was no liability was based upon the Carmack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act [U.S.C.A., title 49, secs. 1, 20 (11)], which excepted from regulation the transportation of passengers and property by railroad “from or to any place in the United States to or from a foreign country, but only in so far as such transportation takes place within the United States”. In the course of the opinion, Lockwood, C.J., said:

“It is a general rule of international law that no law has any effect of its own force beyond...