International Maritime Law

International maritime law is a set of certain norms, as well as clear principles that govern the relations of countries in the use of water. Since ancient times, this territory has served humanity for various activities. People engaged in navigation, extraction of various resources, scientific research, etc. Nowadays, states and organizations of a global scale are also entering into various relationships with each other in the course of their activities carried out on the water expanses. These relations regulate international maritime law, which is a set of legal norms.

In connection with the specifics of the activities carried out on the water expanses, the legislative acts that regulate it do not have circulation in other areas of interstate relations. These are:

- Freedom in the high seas of shipping;

- the right of unimpeded movement of sea transport over territorial waters belonging to foreign organizations;

- the right of peaceful transit through the straits, which are used for the purposes of transnational navigation, etc.

International maritime law is an integral part of an integrated system of interstate legal acts. The water spaces of our planet are classified into:

- sovereign territories within the state border;

- spaces that do not belong to any country in the world.

Depending on their belonging to a particular group, the legal status of the water area varies. The seas and oceans, which are considered the state territory of the coastal state, have a uniform legal position. However, the legal regimes of territorial, archipelagic and inland waters differ somewhat from each other. A separate type of space is the straits, which are used by the courts of various states.

Sources of international maritime law are conventions on continental shelves and fisheries, protection of the resources of water spaces and coastal territory. The system of certain norms and principles relating to the use of neutral space, affirms freedom:

- flights;

- shipping;

- laying of cables of pipelines;

- fisheries;

- research of a scientific nature.

International maritime law establishes outside the territorial waters the subordination of courts of jurisdiction of the state whose flag is developed on their mast. Military or police, as well as border ships of other countries, do not have the right to apply any restrictive freedom of action to them. This principle can be violated only in strictly limited cases, the purpose of which is to ensure the safety of navigation. Thus, military vessels have the right to seize pirate ships and arrest persons on board. Subsequently, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea deals with the processing of cases of robbery or detention, violence or other acts of piracy that the detained crew committed for personal gain. However, in the event that a ship or aircraft is detained unreasonably, a material payment is made for the damage or loss. The same principle should be applied to the rights of persecution.

International legislation allows any state to arrest a ship on the high seas. Such actions should be carried out if the foreign ship was the violator of legality during the presence in the internal borders of the country.

The UN Convention establishes that the space outside the territorial waters, as well as the bottom belonging to it, is reserved for peaceful purposes. This means that states are prohibited from manifesting aggressive, provocative, and hostile acts against other countries in these areas.