Innocent passage is a concept in the law of the sea that allows for a vessel to pass through the archipelagic and territorial waters of another state, subject to certain restrictions. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Article 19 defines innocent passage as:[1]
Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall take place in conformity with this Convention and with other rules of international law.
Passage of a foreign ship shall be considered to be prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State if in the territorial sea it engages in any of the following activities:
(a) any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of the coastal State, or in any other manner in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations;
(b) any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind;
(c) any act aimed at collecting information to the prejudice of the defence or security of the coastal State;
(d) any act of propaganda aimed at affecting the defence or security of the coastal State;
(e) the launching, landing or taking on board of any aircraft;
(f) the launching, landing or taking on board of any military device;
(g) the loading or unloading of any commodity, currency or person contrary to the customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations of the coastal State;
(h) any act of wilful and serious pollution contrary to this Convention;
(I) any fishing activities;
(j) the carrying out of research or survey activities;
(k) any act aimed at interfering with any systems of communication or any other facilities or installations of the coastal State;
(l) any other activity not having a direct bearing on passage.
Any underwater vehicle, including submarines, shall surface and show its flag during the innocent passage (but not during the transit passage).[2]
Innocent passage concedes the coastal country's territorial sea claim, unlike freedom of navigation, which directly contests it.[3][4]
^"UN CLS, Part II".
^The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (2017). The Law of the Sea Primer(PDF). Tufts College. pp. 20, 23.
^Bosco, Joseph A. "Are Freedom of Navigation Operations and Innocent Passage Really the Same?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
^"U.S. destroyer challenges China's claims in South China Sea". Reuters. 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
defines innocentpassage as: Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall...
confers any right of innocentpassage through such a waterway.... [Secondly]... a right of innocentpassage is not a right of free passage for any cargo at...
of innocentpassage, right of transit passage, right of archipelagic sea lanes passage and freedom of the high seas. The right of innocentpassage allows...
seas of foreign states and straits used for international navigation. Florian H. Th. Wegelein (February 1999). "InnocentPassage". Seerecht.org. v t e...
contrary, foreign vessels have no right of passage within internal waters, and this lack of right to innocentpassage is the key difference between internal...
when American cruiser USS Yorktown tried to exercise the right of innocentpassage through Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea during the Cold...
12 nmi (22 km) and declaring that it would recognize only transit by innocentpassage through the newly expanded area. In July 1972, Oman also expanded its...
the legal regime of transit passage (Strait of Gibraltar, Dover Strait, Strait of Hormuz). The regime of innocentpassage applies in straits used for...
Foreign vessels have right of innocentpassage through archipelagic waters, but archipelagic states may limit innocentpassage to designated sea lanes. Contiguous...
state responsibility for damages at sea, as well as the doctrine of innocentpassage. A contentious case, it was the first of any type heard by the ICJ...
venerate the Holy Innocents as the first Christian martyrs, but modern scholarship finds no evidence that it happened outside the passages in Matthew. The...
waters, but the state must allow innocentpassage through them. However, archipelagic states can limit innocentpassage to designated sea lanes within these...
prior treaties: the Kiel Canal, the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. Innocentpassage Strait Bugajski, Dariusz R. (2021). Navigational rights and freedoms...
USS Yorktown and the destroyer USS Caron tried to exercise the right of innocentpassage under international law through Soviet territorial waters in the Black...
decision that the Straits of Tiran would be closed. The right of innocent, maritime passage must be preserved for all nations. The Saudi–Egypt Causeway, a...
trade with it." Thus, there was a right to innocentpassage over land and a similar right of innocentpassage at sea. Grotius observed that unlike land...
Foreign ships, both civilian and military, are allowed the right of innocentpassage through the territorial waters of a littoral state subject to conditions...
travel and to trade required (1) a right of innocentpassage over land, and (2) a similar right of innocentpassage at sea. The sea, however, was more like...
mark) of a state; both military and civilian foreign ships are allowed innocentpassage through these waters despite the sea being within the state's sovereignty...
through the strait do so under the regime of transit passage, rather than the more limited innocentpassage allowed in most territorial waters. Therefore, a...
vessels that voluntarily entered a port can no longer claim the right of innocentpassage; at the practical level, port represents a convenient point of control...
traverse the straits, regulated by the general international rule of innocentpassage through international straits and the Royal Ordinance of 1976. It had...
(2001) "The Bridge on the Strait of Messina: 'Lowering' the Right of InnocentPassage?" International and Comparative Law Quarterly 50: 411 ff. "From Rome...
(2001). "The Bridge on the Strait of Messina: 'Lowering' the Right of InnocentPassage?". International and Comparative Law Quarterly (50): 411. "From Rome...
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