Innocent passage

Last updated

Innocent passage is a concept in the law of the sea that allows for a vessel to pass through the archipelagic and territorial waters of another state, subject to certain restrictions. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Article 19 defines innocent passage as: [1]

Contents

  1. Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall take place in conformity with this Convention and with other rules of international law.
  2. Passage of a foreign ship shall be considered to be prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State if in the territorial sea it engages in any of the following activities:
    (a) any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of the coastal State, or in any other manner in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations;
    (b) any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind;
    (c) any act aimed at collecting information to the prejudice of the defence or security of the coastal State;
    (d) any act of propaganda aimed at affecting the defence or security of the coastal State;
    (e) the launching, landing or taking on board of any aircraft;
    (f) the launching, landing or taking on board of any military device;
    (g) the loading or unloading of any commodity, currency or person contrary to the customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations of the coastal State;
    (h) any act of wilful and serious pollution contrary to this Convention;
    (I) any fishing activities;
    (j) the carrying out of research or survey activities;
    (k) any act aimed at interfering with any systems of communication or any other facilities or installations of the coastal State;
    (l) any other activity not having a direct bearing on passage.

Any underwater vehicle, including submarines, shall surface and show its flag during the innocent passage (but not during the transit passage). [2]

Innocent passage concedes the coastal country's territorial sea claim, unlike freedom of navigation, which directly contests it. [3] [4]

History

Initially, the right of innocent passage in the current sense began to take shape in the 1840s (as a customary rule) with the development of world trade and the emergence of steamships navigation, for which it was economically significant to use the shortest possible route often through the coastal waters of a foreign state. [5] The law was codified in the 1958 Geneva Convention and affirmed in the 1982 UNCLOS. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits</span> 1936 agreement on the Turkish Straits

The (Montreux) Convention regarding the Regime of the Straits, often known simply as the Montreux Convention, is an international agreement governing the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits in Turkey. Signed on 20 July 1936 at the Montreux Palace in Switzerland, it went into effect on 9 November 1936, addressing the long running Straits Question over who should control the strategically vital link between the Black and Mediterranean seas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea</span> International maritime law

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. As of May 2023, 168 countries and the European Union are parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom of the seas</span> Customary international maritime law

Freedom of the seas is a principle in the law of the sea. It stresses freedom to navigate the oceans. It also disapproves of war fought in water. The freedom is to be breached only in a necessary international agreement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Territorial waters</span> Coastal waters that are part of a sovereign states sovereign territory

Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf. In a narrower sense, the term is often used as a synonym for the territorial sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law of the sea</span> International law concerning maritime environments

Law of the sea is a body of international law governing the rights and duties of states in maritime environments. It concerns matters such as navigational rights, sea mineral claims, and coastal waters jurisdiction.

Freedom of navigation (FON) is a principle of law of the sea that ships flying the flag of any sovereign state shall not suffer interference from other states, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law. In the realm of international law, it has been defined as “freedom of movement for vessels, freedom to enter ports and to make use of plant and docks, to load and unload goods and to transport goods and passengers". This right is now also codified as Article 87(1)a of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal waters</span>

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes waterways such as rivers and canals, and sometimes the water within small bays.

Hot pursuit is the urgent and direct pursuit of a criminal suspect by law enforcement officers, or by belligerents under international rules of engagement for military forces. Such a situation grants the officers in command powers they otherwise would not have.

In 1989 the USA and USSR issued a Joint Statement on Uniform Acceptance of Rules of International Law Governing Innocent Passage. It made it clear that the text of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) reflected customary international law, and every ship, regardless of cargo, does not need permission to enter another state's territorial sea so long as it adheres to the definition of innocent passage in Article 19 of UNCLOS.

Maritime Security Regimes are codes and conventions of behavior agreed upon by coastal states to provide a degree of security within territorial waters and on the high seas.

<i>Corfu Channel</i> case 1947-49 International Court of Justice case on sea law

The Corfu Channel case was the first public international law case heard before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) between 1947 and 1949, concerning state responsibility for damages at sea, as well as the doctrine of innocent passage. A contentious case, it was the first of any type heard by the ICJ after its establishment in 1945.

Transit passage is a concept of the law of the sea, which allows a vessel or aircraft the freedom of navigation or overflight solely for the purpose of continuous and expeditious transit of a strait between one part of the high seas or exclusive economic zone and another. The requirement of continuous and expeditious transit does not preclude passage through the strait for the purpose of entering, leaving or returning from a state bordering the strait, subject to the conditions of entry to that state. The transit passage may be exercised regardless of the nationality (flag) of the ship, its form of ownership, the merchant or government status of a ship or warship, the private or government status of an aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common heritage of humanity</span> Principle of international law

Common heritage of humanity is a principle of international law that holds the defined territorial areas and elements of humanity's common heritage should be held in trust for future generations and be protected from exploitation by individual nation states or corporations.

The Barcelona Convention and Statute on the Regime of Navigable Waterways of International Concern is a multilateral treaty that was concluded at Barcelona on 20 April 1921. Its purpose is to ensure freedom of navigation in waterways which bear international significance. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 8 October 1921. It went into effect on 31 October 1922. The convention is still in force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maritime boundary</span> Conceptual division of Earths water surface areas using physiographical or geopolitical criteria

A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of Earth's water surface areas using physiographical or geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources, encompassing maritime features, limits and zones. Generally, a maritime boundary is delineated at a particular distance from a jurisdiction's coastline. Although in some countries the term maritime boundary represents borders of a maritime nation that are recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, maritime borders usually serve to identify the edge of international waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1988 Black Sea bumping incident</span> Episode in the Cold War

The Black Sea bumping incident of 12 February 1988 occurred when American cruiser USS Yorktown tried to exercise the right of innocent passage through Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea during the Cold War. The cruiser was bumped by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetny with the intention of pushing Yorktown into international waters. This incident also involved the destroyer USS Caron, sailing in company with USS Yorktown and claiming the right of innocent passage, which was intentionally shouldered by a Soviet Mirka-class frigate SKR-6. Yorktown reported minor damage to its hull, with no holing or risk of flooding. Caron was undamaged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1986 Black Sea incident</span> Ship incident in the Black Sea

On March 13, 1986, the American cruiser USS Yorktown and the destroyer USS Caron tried to exercise the right of innocent passage under international law through Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea near the southern Crimean Peninsula. They were confronted by Soviet frigate Ladny and border guard vessels Dozorny and Izmail.

International piracy law is international law that is meant to protect against piracy. Throughout history and legal precedents, pirates have been defined as hostis humani generis, Latin for "the enemy of all mankind". The United Nations has codified much of the law in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which defines different types of piracy and ways to combat it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli passage through the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran</span> Aspect of the Arab–Israeli conflict (with Egypt)

Israeli passage through the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran was restricted by Egypt, in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, for much of the time between the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the 1967 Six-Day War. Since the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979, Israel has enjoyed freedom of navigation through the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran.

A coastal state is a term found in the law of the sea. Although widely used in the legal documents, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), this term lacks a precise definition. The "essential idea" of a coastal state is having an open sea coast and asserting the sovereignty or jurisdiction in the areas of the sea adjacent to this coast. Norway, Canada, and Chile are examples of the coastal states, Churchill counts up a total of 150 of such states.

References

  1. "UN CLS, Part II".
  2. The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (2017). The Law of the Sea Primer (PDF). Tufts College. pp. 20, 23.
  3. Bosco, Joseph A. "Are Freedom of Navigation Operations and Innocent Passage Really the Same?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  4. "U.S. destroyer challenges China's claims in South China Sea". Reuters. 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  5. Bugajski, Dariusz R. (2021). Navigational rights and freedoms in the international law and practice. Akademia Marynarki Wojennej. p. 89. ISBN   978-83-961549-1-0. OCLC   1267382284.
  6. Rothwell, Donald R.; Bateman, W. S. Walter Samuel Grono (2000-11-14). Navigational Rights and Freedoms, and the New Law of the Sea. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN   978-90-411-1499-0.
  7. Dupuy, René Jean; Vignes, Daniel (1991-10-16). A handbook on the new law of the sea. 2 (1991). Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN   978-0-7923-1063-1.