documents and observe special precautionary measures established for such ships by international agreements, including the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, 32 UST 47, TIAS No.9700 (SOLAS).
Article 21(2) imposes an additional limitation, that such laws and regulations shall not apply to the design, construction, manning, or equipment of foreign ships unless they are giving effect to generally accepted international rules or standards established by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This rule does not affect the right of the coastal State to establish and enforce its own requirementa for port entry, or preclude cooperation between coastal States to enforce their respective port entry requirements. States may also agree to establish higher standards for their ships or for trade between them.
Article 24(2) requires the coastal State to give appropriate publicity to any dangers to navigation of which it has knowledge within its territorial sea.
Article 26 provides that no charge (such as a transit fee) may be levied upon foreign ships by reason only of their passage through the territorial sea. The only charges which may be levied are for specific services rendered to the ship, and any such charges must be levied without discrimination.
Temporary Suspension of Innocent Passage. Article 25(3) provides that: the coastal State may, without discrimination in form or in fact among foreign ships, suspend temporarily in specified areas of its territorial sea the innocent passage of foreign ships if such suspension is essential for the protection of its security, including weapons exercises. Such suspension shall take effect only after having been duly published.
The prohibition against discrimination "in form or in fact" is designed to protect against acts which overtly discriminate in a manner that is prohibited by the article (discrimination "in form") and also against acts that, although not overtly discriminatory, have a discriminatory effect (discrimination "in fact"). "Weapons exercises includes weapons testing.
Rules Applicable to Merchant Ships and Government Ships Operated for Commercial Purposes (Articles 27 and 28). Article 27, concerning criminal jurisdiction on board a foreign ship, and article 28, concerning civil jurisdiction in relation to foreign ships, are taken almost verbatim from articles 19 and 20 of the Territorial Sea Convention, respectively, but have been expanded to include the regime of the EEZ and the rules of Part XII on the protection and preservation of the marine environment introduced by the Convention.
Rules Applicable to Warships and Other Government Ships Operated for Non-commercIal Purposes (ArtIcles 29 to 32). Warships are defined in article 29 for the purposes of the Convention as a whole, including articles 95, 107, 110, 111 and 236. The Convention expands upon earlier definitions, no longer requiring that such a ship belong to the "naval" forces of a nation, under the command of an officer whose name appears in the "Navy list" and manned by a crew who are under regular "naval" discipline. Article 29 instead refers to "armed forces" to accommodate the integration of different branches of the armed forces in various countries, the operation of seagoing craft by some armies and air forces, and the existence of a coast guard as a separate unit of the armed forces of some nations, such as the United States.
Under article 30, the sole recourse available to a coastal State in the event of noncompliance by a foreign warship with that State's laws and regulations regarding innocent passage is to require the warship to leave the terntonal sea immediately.
Article 31 provides that the flag State bears international responsibility for any loss or damage caused by its warships or other government ships operated for non-commercial purposes to a coastal State as a result of noncompliance with applicable law. This provision is consistent with the modern rules of State responsibility in cases of State immunity.
Article 32 provides, in effect, that the only rules in the Convention derogating from the immunities of warships and government ships operated for non-commercial purposes are those found in articles 17-26, 30 and 31.
Straits Used for international Navigation (Part III, Articles 34-39, 41-45)
The navigational provisions of the Convention concerning international straits are fundamental to U.S. national security interests. Merchant ships and cargoes, civil aircraft, naval ships and task forces, military aircraft, and submarines must be able to transit international straits freely in their normal mode as a matter of right, and not at the sufferance of the States bordering straits. The United States has consistently made clear throughout its history that it is not prepared to secure these rights through bilateral arrangements. The continuing U.S. position is that these rights must form an explicit part of the law of the sea. Part III of the Convention guarantees these rights.
With the expansion of the maximum permissible breadth of the territorial sea from 3 to 12 miles, it was necessary to develop stronger guarantees for navigation and overflight on, over, and under international straits. Such rules were critical to maintain the essential balance of interests between States bordering straits and other concerned States.
Part III applies to all straits used for international navigation, regardless of width, including their approaches, unless there is a high seas/EEZ route through the strait of similar convenience with respect to navigational and hydrographic characteristics. Part III applies three legal regimes to different kinds of straits used for international navigation.
Transit passage applies to straits connecting one part of the high seas/EEZ and another part of the high seas/EEZ (article 37), except as noted below. The great majority of strategically important straits, e.g., Gibraltar,Bonifacio, Babel Mandeb, Hormuz,
