High Seas Treaty

High Seas Treaty

Treaty Concerning the Freedom of Navigation on the High Seas
Signed	May 19, 1971 (1971-05-19)
Location	Huimont, Ainin
Effective	February 7, 1973 (1973-02-07)
Condition	Ratification by both parties
Parties	Initial treaty Ainin Tuthina Supplementary protocol X parties
Depositary	Governments of the Aininian Republic and the Most Serene Empire of Tuthina
Languages	French, Literary Tuthinan

The Treaty Concerning the Freedom of Navigation on the High Seas (French: Traité concernant la liberté de navigation sur la haute mer, Literary Tuthinan: 𣶟𣳠𦨵權𡚑𠣩 chang'hëy hanggwen kung'yak), commonly known as the High Seas Treaty (French: Traité sur la haute mer, Literary Tuthinan: 𦉭𣳠𡚑𠣩 sihëy kung'yak), is an international agreement in Esquarium that codifies a series of legal principles regulating the status of marine shipping, territorial waters, and navigation rights.

Starting as a bilateral agreement between Ainin and Tuthina, Esquarium's largest naval powers, it was opened to ratifications from other states through the addition of a protocol in 1983. It has since been accepted by most countries into the canon of customary international law and has been held by both depositories to be binding on all nations, including non-signatories.

History

Maritime law in Esquarium has historically been governed by the principle of "enemy goods make enemy ships", where belligerent navies often searched neutral shipping on suspicion of trading with the enemy. Neutral powers' ships caught trading with the enemy were seized as prizes of war, causing major economic losses for thalassocracies and trading nations. While this was defended as necessary to maintain the integrity of embargoes, it was a point of contention for nations whose economies were reliant on foreign trade and vulnerable to disruptions in access.

Over time, naval powers with interests in maintaining free commerce espoused the competing principle of "free ships make free goods", where neutral shipping carrying goods destined for belligerent powers was inviolable. During the Great Borean War, the Aininian Navy enforced this claimed right by escorting Aininian merchantmen that traded with the Transborean Federative Republic. During the Great Republican Uprising, Tuthinan traders experienced difficulties abroad when governments friendly to the rebels closed their waters to imperial ships, forcing them to take time-consuming detours.

Shortly after the defeat of the uprising, Aininian prime minister François de Malecot approached Tuthinan Chancellor Kïltasï Petïl about an agreement on freedom of navigation on the high seas. During negotiations, substantial agreement was found between the two sides and the scope of the talks quickly expanded into a comprehensive treaty on admiralty law. A multilateral approach was initially suggested, but abandoned in favour of a bilateral treaty enforced by the joint political and military influence of the two naval powers. Although signatures were exchanged in May 1971, the National Assembly of Ainin withheld ratification for two years afterwards due to the Democratic opposition's mistrust of Tuthina. It eventually relented when President Clément Laflèche threatened a snap election to break the deadlock.

In February 1983, newly-elected Aininian prime minister Mohammed el-Faswa once again approached Petïl about opening the treaty to other states, as many states who agreed in principle with the agreement withheld their cooperation in protest of its bilateral nature. A protocol to this effect was signed and ratified in August 1983. In 2016, a complementary agreement, the Whaling Treaty, was signed by Ainin and Tuthina.

Description

Article 1

Article 1 concerns the definition of territorial waters. It provides for territorial waters reaching up to 10 kilometres from the low-water line of states' coastlines. For the purposes of calculating the coastline, internal waters are considered part of the coastline. The article then permits states to exercise legal jurisdiction over territorial waters and establishes their responsibility to provide search and rescue and law enforcement facilities in such areas. It also establishes the right of innocent passage through all territorial waters and prohibits any access restrictions to these waters to foreign shipping, except for the creation of sea lanes to promote navigational security.

Article 2

Article 2 provides for all rivers, inland bays and seas, and other bodies of water "wholly located within and extensively surrounded, from no less than three cardinal directions, by" a single nation to be classified as internal waters and subject to the unconditional jurisdiction of the state. An addendum to the section included in the 1983 Protocol provides for all the waters between the islands of an enumerated list of archipelagos to be considered internal. The list, which may be revised with the consent of all high contracting parties, currently consists of the following archipelagoes:

• Ainin: "Vaudale, Mercier and Risagne Is., and peripheral islands", "West Concordian Islands, except for the body of water separating the sub-regions known as Pisdara and the Charline Islands"
• Aucuria: "Principal body of Aucurian islands"
• Montecara: “Principal body of Montecaran islands”
• Nunalik: "Principal body of Nunalikan islands"
• Template:Country data Pisdara (Ainin at time of ratification): "West Concordian Islands, except for the body of water separating the sub-regions known as Pisdara and the Charlines"
• Senria: "Principal body of Senrian islands"
• Tuthina: "Principal body of islands known as the Tuthinan Home Islands"
• Vyvland: "Principal body of Vyvlander islands"

Article 3

Article 3 originally set out an exclusive sector for nations that spanned from the limit of their territorial waters to the end of the continental shelf, which is defined principally as the entirety of the waters from the shore to the continental margin. In this zone, nations did not exercise sovereignty but were guaranteed an exclusivity in economic rights, most notably mineral and fishing rights. The original Article 3 was repealed when the Whaling Treaty came into force. It was replaced by a more limited category of resource sectors, territorially identical to exclusive sectors, that only guarantees mineral rights. Territorial fishing rights have been phased out in the new treaty and replaced by a quota system tied to regions, specific bodies of water and fish species.

Article 4

Article 4 establishes the principle of "free ships make free goods", thereby codifying the freedom of navigation into international law. It prohibits attacks on non-belligerent shipping by any side, classifying such acts as piracy, and implicitly curtails the ability of nations to enforce naval blockades. However, it makes an exception for ships carrying contraband. As the treaty does not clarify whether the prohibition on contraband implies a right by belligerents to inspect neutral ships, Article 4 has caused incidents in the past. Ainin holds that no such right exists, while Tuthina has concluded otherwise, further adding to the ambiguity.

Article 5

Article 5 deals with all waters that are not internal, territorial or zoned as resource sectors. It declares those waters to be high seas, or international waters, and denies any single state jurisdiction over them. However, it makes a special exception for "crimes and infractions provided for by the body of public international law", which are defined by the High Seas and Whaling Treaties as overfishing, piracy and unlawful dumping. The article additionally permits all states to exploit natural resources in international waters in an "ecologically sustainable and responsible fashion", although fisheries became more strictly regulated under an international quota regime through the 2016 Whaling Treaty.

The article also perpetually classifies the waters of the Hyporian continent as international.

Article 6

Article 6 deals with dispute resolution. In the event that two lawful claims overlap, the article prescribes that the limit will follow the halfway point between the claims unless an agreement to the contrary is agreed upon by the two parties in question. It also establishes an advisory International Arbitration Committee to resolve disputes under the Treaty and establishes procedures for its functioning. However, because its recommendations are non-binding, it relies on the cooperation of both parties and pressure from the international community to implement its decisions.

Article 7 and 1983 Protocol

Article 7 deals with enactment and amendments. The treaty lacks a denunciation mechanism, making withdrawal conditional on the agreement of all high contracting parties.

The article's amendment procedure was invoked for the first time in 1983, when Ainin and Tuthina signed a protocol that opened the treaty to ratification from all sovereign states. It was evoked for a second time in 2016, when the Whaling Treaty abrogated portions of Article 3.

Status

List of parties

  Denotes a depository of the treaty

Entity	Signed	Came into force	Method
Ainin	May 19, 1971	February 7, 1973	Ratification
Aucuria	November 12, 1983	February 9, 1984	Ratification
Desenan Republic	June 3, 1991	June 21, 1991	Ratification
Esquarian Community	December 7, 2017	December 7, 2017	Accession
Template:Country data Jathana	September 12, 1983	September 14, 1983	Ratification
Katranjiev	August 7, 1983	September 1, 1983	Ratification
Montecara	February 10, 1984	March 31, 1984	Ratification
Senria	March 25, 1983	April 12, 1983	Ratification
Sjealand	March 2, 1984	March 7, 1984	Ratification
Siphria	August 27, 1984	November 4, 1986	Ratification
Swastria	September 9, 1983	September 15, 1983	Ratification
Tuthina	May 19, 1971	May 31, 1971	Ratification
Xiaodong	June 27, 1984	17 April, 1985	Ratification

See also

• Whaling Treaty