---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 163"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "163"
heading: "Jurisdiction by the United States; fugitives from justice"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/163"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter XX — Glacier National Park"
---

# §163. Jurisdiction by the United States; fugitives from justice


Sole and exclusive jurisdiction is assumed by the United States over the territory embraced within the Glacier National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3), saving, however, to the [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) of Montana the right to serve civil or criminal process within the limits of the aforesaid [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) in suits or prosecution for or on account of rights acquired, obligations incurred, or crimes committed in said [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) but outside of said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3), and saving, further, to the said [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) the right to tax [persons](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=b) and corporations, their franchises and property, on the lands included in said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3). All the laws applicable to places under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States shall have force and effect in said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3). All fugitives from justice [taking](/usc/16/3102.md?p=18) refuge in said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) shall be subject to the same laws as refugees from justice found in the [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) of Montana.


## Source credit

(Aug. 22, 1914, ch. 264, § 1, 38 Stat. 699.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

A provision accepting the act of the Montana Legislature which ceded to the United States Exclusive Jurisdiction over the Territory referred to in this section has been omitted as executed.