Maritime professionals have a complicated enough business just getting from point-A to point-B. We like to keep water touching our hulls, not sand; air on our masts, not bridges. We like our red lights to mean bad things, coffee to be hot, the pilot to be sober, and the tugs to show up on time.

We also like our rules simple and easily memorized. Unfortunately, when rules turn in to law things get complicated fast. Let’s take what seems to be a simple concept one can knock out of the park on PQS in a few seconds, “Innocent Passage.”

The right of innocent passage, which according to Art. 17 UNCLOS “ships of all States” enjoy, allows the “vessels to navigate through the territorial sea without stopping or anchoring”, granting them navigational rights to advance global values such as trade, communication and security without violating the coastal State’s sovereign rights if complying with Arts. 18 et seq. UNCLOS.

That seems straight forward, but not really. It is like describing an elephant only by its trunk.

Paula Anna Jenner at the European Journal of International Law has a great overview of the complicated nature of Innocent Passage and how the law works here using the recent experience of HMS Defender off Crimea as an example.

I had to read it twice until I got a grasp of it but give it a shot. If you get nothing else from it besides being comfortable saying, “Get the JAG in here” while on staff, it will be worth it.
The law is rarely clear which is why you should always make sure your lawyers are better than their lawyers.