Quote:
Originally Posted by ikalugin
Ok, just to clarify, so there is nothing in the bill that implies searches outside of the U.S. territorian waters/EEZ?
Would gathering information for the reports (on ships going in and out of the specified ports) imply such searches?
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I couldnt find anything.
Based on my experiences any nation with a sea going service can enforce international laws in international waters. However as far as we're concerned the nation under which the suspect vessel is flagged needs to be consulted before we could step aboard to and take action. No flag? Then we consider it a stateless vessel and would most likely board it. Might be too if we dont recognize the flag as legitimate we might board it.
Unless it is a case of force majeure we do not enter into someone else's territorial seas without their permission beforehand. To do so would violate their sovereignty and all hell would break loose as the offending nation would most likely have their ship seized and subject to the foreign powers internal laws.
It may be possible to patrol the area between the boundaries of sovereign nations (international waters) and gather intelligence on shipping traffic last port next port of call etc. etc. If we believed violations occured and could not get permission to board. I imagine the best we could do is file a complaint or sanction the offending nation. Which as one of the bills suggested may include preventing their ships from entering U.S. ports. Or shoot their planes out of the sky like we did when we challenged Libya's clear violation of international law when Kaddafi established the "line of death".
edit: boundary definitions and what kind of law enforcement within those boundaries can be done is found in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of which the U.S. abides by.