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In the
international maritime law International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...
, right of visit (also right of visitation, right of search) allows a
belligerent A belligerent is an individual, group, country, or other entity that acts in a hostile manner, such as engaging in combat. The term comes from the Latin ''bellum gerere'' ("to wage war"). Unlike the use of ''belligerent'' as an adjective meanin ...
warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...
during
war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
time to stop and board neutral
merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are ...
in order to verify that the ship nationality matches the declared one and its operation does not break the
naval blockade A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations ...
, does not involve
contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") is any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It comprises goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes of the leg ...
, and does not provide non-neutral services to the enemy. The use of word "visit" probably refers to a misunderstanding of the French word , which in this context simply means ''search''. The visit is customarily made by warship boat that brings onboard of the merchant vessel an officer in charge and his assistant, armed with no more than sidearms. Alternatively, the commander of the warship might summon the merchant
shipmaster A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the ship, inc ...
aboard the warship with requested paperwork. During the wartime, the right can be exercised by any commissioned ship or aircraft of a belligerent in both
high seas The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...
and territorial waters of the belligerent or its enemies. During the peacetime or to non-belligerents, a right of visit does not apply, with the exceptions laid out in the Article 110 of the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 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 treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 169 sov ...
(UNCLOS): suspicion of
piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
, slavery, unlawful broadcasting, or in case of suspicion that the nationality of the merchant ship is actually the same as the one of warship or the merchant ship has no nationality.


Agreements

States are, naturally, free to enter bilateral or multilateral agreements that provide prior consent to a visit of a merchant ship of a signatory state by a warship of another signatory. This cooperation might be essential for preventing unlawful fishing, migrant smuggling, and the trafficking of narcotics. For example, the 1995 Council of Europe Agreement on Illicit Traffic by Sea permits boarding the ships of other signatories with prior authorization. These agreements are not necessarily reciprocal, for example, the 1981 agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom allows US warship to board British-flagged ships in certain regions of high seas (
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
, the American Gulf, and areas of Atlantic Ocean) with no reciprocity provided to the United Kingdom. United States, with its outsized bargaining power was able to secure very beneficial terms in agreements with Belize, Liberia, Panama, Cyprus and the Marshall Islands: US can board ships flying the flags of these countries upon requesting a permission and not receiving a rejection within a two-hour window. The obviously inadequate time allocated to signatories makes the notification in this case at best a "window-dressing" for the state sovereignty. The 1988 Vienna Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, while building upon UNCLOS, did not include a right to visit foreign vessels suspected of running the narcotic trade, but established a procedure of requesting an ad-hoc permission from another state. The
Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation #REDIRECT Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation ...
of 1988 and subsequent Protocols introduced additional exceptions. This Convention was developed in order to resolve jurisdictional issues that surfaced after the murder of an American citizen onboard
Achille Lauro Achille Lauro (; 16 June 1887 – 15 November 1982) was an Italian businessman and politician. He is widely considered one of the main precursors of modern populism in Italian politics. He was nicknamed by his supporters ''Il Comandante'' ("Th ...
, an Italian vessel, in Egyptian
territorial waters 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 ( ...
.
Proliferation Security Initiative The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) is a global effort that aims to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery systems, and related materials to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern. ...
was established by the United States in 2003 and includes more than 100 countries that agreed on a (non-binding) Statement of Interdiction Principle with the purpose of
counterproliferation Counterproliferation refers to diplomatic, intelligence, and military efforts to combat the proliferation of weapons, including both weapons of mass destruction (WMD), long-range missiles, and certain conventional weapons. Measures to combat pro ...
. It is unclear how its principles can apply beyond the territorial waters of signatories or interfere with right of the
innocent passage Innocent passage is a concept in the law of the sea that allows for a vessel to pass through the territorial sea (and certain grandfathered internal waters) of another state, subject to certain restrictions. The United Nations Convention on the Law ...
. As some commenters noted, the transit of the proliferation material does not necessarily can be considered "prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state" when the intended use of the weapons occurs at a faraway destination, not during the transit.


Background

The principle of freedom of the high seas essentially prohibits "interference in peacetime by ships flying one national flag with ships flying the flag of other nationalities". The right of visit is the most significant exception to this basic principle. The four-hundred-year-old concept of ''
mare liberum ''Mare Liberum'' (or ''The Freedom of the Seas'') is a book in Latin on international law written by the Dutch jurist and philosopher Hugo Grotius, first published in 1609. In ''The Free Sea'', Grotius formulated the new principle that the sea w ...
'' necessitates limiting jurisdiction of a particular state on the high seas to the ships under its own flag: "no nation can exercise a right of visitation and search upon the common and unappropriated parts of the sea, save only on the belligerent claim" ( Le Louis case, 1817). "Any freedom that is to be exercised in the interests of all entitled to enjoy it, must be regulated" (
International Law Commission The International Law Commission (ILC) is a body of experts responsible for helping develop and codify international law. It is composed of 34 individuals recognized for their expertise and qualifications in international law, who are elected by t ...
, 1958), so to safeguard the freedom of the seas for every state, certain restrictions on its exercise are inevitable.


Declaration of London

The regulation of naval search during time of war was codified as part of the
Declaration of London The London Declaration concerning the Laws of Naval War was a proposed international code of maritime law, especially as it relates to wartime activities, in 1909 at the London Naval Conference by the leading European naval powers, the United Sta ...
(1903). However, no state ratified the declaration so it had no force in international law."Declaration concerning the Laws of Naval War"
International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...
. The intent of the declaration was as follows. The right of search belongs to
belligerent A belligerent is an individual, group, country, or other entity that acts in a hostile manner, such as engaging in combat. The term comes from the Latin ''bellum gerere'' ("to wage war"). Unlike the use of ''belligerent'' as an adjective meanin ...
s alone. Its object is to verify the nationality of the vessel and if neutral to ascertain whether it carries
contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") is any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It comprises goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes of the leg ...
. The consequence of resistance to search is capture and trial in a
Prize court A prize court is a court (or even a single individual, such as an ambassador or consul) authorized to consider whether prizes have been lawfully captured, typically whether a ship has been lawfully captured or seized in time of war or under the te ...
. Article 63 of the Declaration states that "Forcible resistance to the legitimate exercise of the right of stoppage, search and capture involves in all cases the condemnation of the vessel. The cargo is liable to the same treatment as the cargo of an enemy vessel. Goods belonging to the master or owner of the vessel are treated as enemy goods." At the
Hague Convention of 1907 The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amon ...
, the question of the liability to search of mail-ships gave rise to much discussion based on incidents arising out of the
Boer Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...
and Russo-Japanese Wars. It was ultimately decided under a separate article of the Hague conference that postal correspondence of neutrals and even of belligerents, and whether official or private, found on board a
neutral Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...
or even an enemy ship should be "inviolable", and that though the ship should be detained, this correspondence had to be forwarded to its destination by the captor "with the least possible delay". The only exception to this exemption is correspondence destined for or proceeding from a blockaded port. As regards the mail-ships themselves, apart from this inviolability of the correspondence, no exemption or privilege is extended beyond the injunction that they should not be searched, except when absolutely necessary, and then only "with as much consideration and expedition as possible", which might just as well be said of all ships stopped or searched in
international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...
.


U.S. Navy

According to the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
's Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations,


See also

*
Law of Armed Conflict The law of war is a component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of hostilities (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, ...
*
Blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...


References


Sources

* * * * * * * {{cite web , title=United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , url=https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf , ref={{sfnref, UN , access-date=2025-05-18 Law of the sea