hot pursuit

Article 111 of UNCLOS allows a coastal State to pursue a foreign ship when it has good reason to believe the ship has violated its laws. The pursuit must begin while the ship, or one of its boats, is within the internal waters, territorial sea or contiguous zone of the pursuing State (or within the EEZ or over the continental shelf, for laws applicable there). It must be continuous and uninterrupted, it must be preceded by a visual or auditory signal to stop, and it may be carried out only by warships, military aircraft or other clearly marked government ships or aircraft authorised for the purpose.

The right ends as soon as the ship enters the territorial sea of its own State or of a third State. Claims of “hot pursuit” across land borders have no settled basis in treaty law and are controversial.

Example

A Coast Guard vessel that began chasing a poaching trawler inside India's EEZ may continue the hot pursuit onto the high seas, but must stop once the trawler enters another State's territorial sea.

In Indian law

• Article 111, UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982

See also

high seas · territorial sea · contiguous zone · exclusive economic zone

Read more in the study notes

• Continental shelf, high seas and the deep seabed (Public International Law)