Abstract
The increasing role of non-State actors in international relations and in the system of international law is a subject of interest and discussions at the level of States, international organisations, including courts, as well as of scholars. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion, accentuating conceptual approach to the factual and legal character of extraterritorial operations taken by States against non-State actors who are not under the control of the territorial State concerned.
The analysis focuses on essential legal questions raised by extraterritorial use of force against non-State actors that constitute a challenge for three frameworks of international law, namely those regulating resort to force, international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The paper examines not only the applicability of these frameworks to extraterritorial operations but also articulates questions and challenges that this phenomenon raises and that the international community and law are faced with.