Civil Craft. The State’s power is limited to:
(a) Safety of navigation, conservation of resources, control of pollution, and prevention of infringements of the customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws;
(b) Criminal enforcement, but only when the alleged criminal act occurred within internal waters, or the act occurred while in innocent passage through the territorial sea and it affects the coastal State;106
(c) Civil process, but the coastal State may not stop ships in innocent passage to serve process, and may not arrest ships unless the ship is leaving internal waters, lying in the territorial sea (i.e., not in passage), or incurs a liability while in innocent passage (e.g., pollution).107
Civil Craft. The coastal State retains almost no State competencies over civil craft in transit passage or ASL passage, other than the competencies applicable within the contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone. These include customs, fiscal, immigration, and sanitary laws, and prohibitions on exploitation of resources (e.g., fishing). Additionally, the coastal State may propose a traffic separation scheme, but it must be approved by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).112
Civil Craft. On the high seas, the general rule is Flag State jurisdiction only.118 Non-Flag States have almost no competencies over civil craft on the high seas, with the following exceptions:
(1) Ships engaged in the slave trade.119 Every State is required to take measures to suppress the slave trade by its flagged vessels. If any other State stops a slave vessel, the slaves are automatically freed.
(2) Ships or aircraft engaged in piracy.120 Piracy is an international crime consisting of illegal acts of violence, detention, or depredation committed for private ends by the crew or passenger of a private ship or aircraft in or over international waters against another ship or aircraft or persons and property on board. This act must occur on the high seas or outside the territorial jurisdiction of a state.121 Note that both sides must be located onboard an aircraft or vessel. As such, events such as the 1985 Xxxxxxx Xxxxx incident do not meet the strict definition of piracy. Terrorist acts committed for purely political motives, vice private gain, have not generally been considered piracy.122 International law has long recognized a general duty of all nations to cooperate in the repression of piracy. Under the authority of both customary international law and the provisions of UNCLOS III (art. 101, 105), any State craft may seize and arrest pirates123 and any State may prosecute pirates under a theory of universal jurisdiction, provided the State has domestic laws criminalizing such behavior. Piracy remains a problem in many areas of the world, particularly in confined waters.124 114 NWP 1-14M (2007), supra note 1, at para. 2.6.2. See also UNCLOS III, art. 56; Annotated NWP 1-14M, supra note 1, at 1 19 to 1-21; Xxxxxxxxx & Xxxx, supra note 2, at 166-69. 115 UNCLOS III, art. 246; Xxxxxxxxx & Xxxx, supra note 2, at 405-12. Note there is no exception to this requirement for State vessels, but such consent should normally be given by the coastal state. UNCLOS III, art. 246(3). 116 NWP 1-14M (2007), supra note 1, at para. 2.6.2.2.
(1); Annotated NWP 1-14M, supra note 1, at 1 26, 1-39; Xxxxxxxxx & Xxxx, supra note 2, at 170-74. This EEZ dispute is one of 3 current maritime disputes that China is currently involved in. The other two disputes include: (1) specific island disputes with its neighbors, and (2) a claim that the entire South China Sea is Chinese territorial sea based on the so-called “Nine Dash Line,” a 1947 map (from then Nationalist China) which outlines the So...
