high seas

Under Part VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS), the high seas are open to all States, coastal or land-locked, and no State may subject any part of them to its sovereignty (Articles 86, 87 and 89). The freedoms include navigation, overflight, laying submarine cables and pipelines, building artificial islands, fishing and scientific research, each exercised with due regard for others.

On the high seas a ship is generally subject only to the jurisdiction of its flag State. The exceptions allow any State to act against piracy, the slave trade, unauthorised broadcasting and stateless ships (right of visit, Article 110), and allow hot pursuit begun in the coastal State's waters to continue. The idea goes back to Grotius's Mare Liberum (1609).

Example

An Indian warship may seize a pirate ship on the high seas even if neither the ship nor the crew is Indian.

In Indian law

• Part VII (Articles 86–120), UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982

See also

mare liberum · exclusive economic zone · piracy · hot pursuit

Read more in the study notes

• Free consent: coercion and undue influence (Contract I)
• History of Environmental Law and IP Law, National and International (Law of Intellectual Property Rights, Human Rights and Environment)
• Sources of international law (Public International Law)
• Subjects of international law: States, organisations and individuals (Public International Law)
• State jurisdiction: principles and exemptions (Public International Law)
• Law of the sea: baselines, territorial sea, contiguous zone and EEZ (Public International Law)