Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Extraterritorial jurisdiction or ETJ is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries. In the U.S, many states have laws or even constitutions which permit cities to make certain decisions about the land beyond the town's incorporated limits. Texas, Alaska, and North Carolina are all examples of states which allow cities to claim ETJ over zoning laws, which is the most common use of ETJ. Some states even require that ETJ be established over an area for a certain minimum time period (usually one year) before it can be subject to annexation. Most set the ETJ distance based upon a city's population. Extraterritorial jurisdiction can also apply internationally. For example, the United States has status of forces agreements with many nations which give the United States jurisdiction over members of its military. This is a stub article. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.