Maritime lawyers

I love making interesting videos. The most interesting topics are often exceptions—deviationsfrom the norm. All of us live in countries, where there are laws and rules and governingbodies telling us what we can and can’t do. But, 70% of the world is ocean, wherethere are no countries—no governing bodies to tell us what’s right and wrong. That’swhy maritime law exists. Let’s start with a hypothetical: a baby is born on a cruiseship sailing in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. What nationality does it take?This is the coast of some fictional place in some fictional country governed by somefictional government. From this line, which is the water line at the lowest low tide,every country is allowed 12 miles of territorial waters. It used to be 3 miles—the distancea cannon could shoot off shore—but that has since changed. Those twelve miles arethe property of a country. They can do pretty much whatever they please in it and all domesticlaws apply. Foreign ships are, however, sometimes allowed to enter into these waters under theprinciple of innocent passage. If ships have an innocent purpose—which does not includefishing, polluting, weapons practice, or spying—they are allowed to pass through territorial watersof a foreign nation without permission as long as they do so quickly and without stoppingon shore. Beyond the territorial waters there is another 12 miles of the contiguous zone. This zone allows a country to enforce laws as long as they fall into one of four categories. If the laws have to do with customs, taxation, immigration, or pollution, they can be enforcedin the contiguous zone. Beyond the contiguous waters is the Exclusive Economic Zone, alsoknown as the EEZ. This zone extends 200 nautical miles from shore. Beyond the territorial watersthe EEZ is in international waters, however, only the country who holds the exclusive economiczone has the right to harvest natural resources in this area. This law was originally setup to help with disputes over fishing rights but has since been incredibly useful withthe boom in oil drilling. All these laws do, however, occasionally cause some disputesdue to overlapping zones. This is the South China Sea—an incredibly important waterway. Nearly 1/3rd of the world’s shipping traffic passes through it and it reportedly has hugeuntapped oil reserves. China has this land so it says it has all this water, Malaysiahas this land so it says it has all this water, Vietnam has this land so it says it has allthis water, Brunei has this land so it says it has all this water, the Philippines hasthis land so it says it has all this water, and Taiwan has this land so it says it hasall this water. When two countries are less than 400 nautical miles away from each other,it is up to them to decide where their respective economic zones end. Most solve it civillyby separating the zones at the equidistant point from each of their shores, however,when the stakes are so high, such as in the South China Sea, countries can be a bit lesscordial. So, our cruise ship baby. Let’s change the hypothetical and say that the cruiseship was sailing in US territorial waters—less than 12 miles away from shore. Every oceangoingvessel is required to be registered in some country. You’ll notice that most large cruiseships are registered in tiny far-away countries. Panama, a nation with fewer people that Minneapolis,holds the registration of one quarter of the world’s ships because taxes and labor costsare low. When a ship is in international waters, the laws of the country of registration apply. A ship registered in Amsterdam could legally have prostitution and marijuana on board,as long as they got rid of the drugs and shut down the brothels before sailing into territorialwaters. Once a ship is in the territorial waters of a country, the onboard laws switchto that of the country the ship is physically in. This is the same for nationality law,kinda. A baby born on a Dutch ship within 12 miles of the US is a baby born in America. Since the US is one of the 30 countries that unconditionally grants citizenship to anybaby born within the country, a baby born in US territorial waters is lucky enough toreceive the world’s 8th most powerful passport. There are two exceptions to this rule. ForeignDiplomats visiting or living in the US with a diplomatic passport are not subject to thelaws of the US or any other nation other than their own. Consequently, the babies of foreigndiplomats do not automatically receive American citizenship. Additionally, the babies of individualsstaging a hostile invasion or occupation of American territory are not granted Americancitizenship upon birth. Here’s where things get even more confusing. Even though a shipin international waters is an extension of the territory of the nation it’s registeredin law wise, the rules for nationality are different. The United Nations Treaty on theReduction of Statelessness, which is followed by… some… countries, says that a babyborn in international waters should just take the nationality of their parents. Most ofthe world’s countries use the principle of bloodline to determine if a baby shouldget citizenship rather than whether or not a baby was born in the country. However, thereare some countries that won’t give citizenship to a baby born outside the country. In thatcase, the baby would take the citizenship of the country in which the ship was registered. Alright, that’s enough with babies. There’s a long history of exploiting maritime laws. During prohibition, US ships started to change their registration to Panama and other foreigncountries so they could serve alcohol in international waters. In the mid-century, casino boats leftfrom many cities where gambling was illegal to partake in legal gambling in internationalwaters. In 2005, entrepreneur Roger Green started SeaCode, a company that planned toevade US labor laws by placing an old cruise ship 12 miles off the shore of California. They would bring in foreign coders and house them in this ship where they would not haveto abide by US wage laws or go through the difficult visa application process. The ideanever came to fruition but the technical legality of it just shows how convoluted maritime lawis. The laws for airplanes are pretty much the same. Technically, once an airplane hastaken off, the laws of the country of registration apply. The only law that is applies and differsamong countries is the drinking age. A British Airways flight from New York to London canserve alcohol to 18 year olds, however, in most cases, airlines choose to follow thelaws of the origin country. Spacecraft also follow very similar laws, and luckily, I havea whole other video just about Space Law. Make sure to check it out here. You can alsoclick here to subscribe to Wendover Productions and follow me on Twitter @WendoverPro. Pleasealso be sure to watch my last video on Why College is so Expensive. It’s a great videoso please check it out if you haven’t done so already. Thank you for watching and I’llsee you soon with another Wendover Productions video.