Apologies for the delay in sharing this update; I had a draft and never posted it. On December 23, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) under the official name Public Law No: 117-263. This Act is also known as the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. Why does this matter? The Act is extremely relevant to this blog since it updated the definition of a stateless vessel under Section 70502 of the MDLEA.1MDLEA Blog Note: The Section 70502 page has also been updated to reflect the changes.
In particular, the following changes were made pursuant to Section 11519 of the Act:
Section 70502(d)(1) of title 46, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in subparagraph (B) by striking “and” after the semicolon;
(2) in subparagraph (C) by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
“(D) a vessel aboard which no individual, on request of an officer of the United States authorized to enforce applicable provisions of United States law, claims to be the master or is identified as the individual in charge, and that has no other claim of nationality or registry under paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (e).”.
For our visual learners, Section 70502(d)(1) previously read:
(d) Vessel without nationality.—
(1) In general.–In this chapter, the term “vessel without nationality” includes–
(A) a vessel aboard which the master or individual in charge makes a claim of registry that is denied by the nation whose registry is claimed;
(B) a vessel aboard which the master or individual in charge fails, on request of an officer of the United States authorized to enforce applicable provisions of United States law, to make a claim of nationality or registry for that vessel; and
(C) a vessel aboard which the master or individual in charge makes a claim of registry and for which the claimed nation of registry does not affirmatively and unequivocally assert that the vessel is of its nationality.
It now reads the following (changes in blue):
(d) Vessel without nationality.—
(1) In general.–In this chapter, the term “vessel without nationality” includes–
(A) a vessel aboard which the master or individual in charge makes a claim of registry that is denied by the nation whose registry is claimed;
(B) a vessel aboard which the master or individual in charge fails, on request of an officer of the United States authorized to enforce applicable provisions of United States law, to make a claim of nationality or registry for that vessel;
(C) a vessel aboard which the master or individual in charge makes a claim of registry and for which the claimed nation of registry does not affirmatively and unequivocally assert that the vessel is of its nationality; and
(D) a vessel aboard which no individual, on request of an officer of the United States authorized to enforce applicable provisions of United States law, claims to be the master or is identified as the individual in charge, and that has no other claim of nationality or registry under paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (e).
Of note, Section 70502(d)(1)(C) remained unchanged. Rather, the Act simply added a new way to deem a vessel stateless under the MDLEA where no one on board claims to be the master (and the master is unidentifiable) and there are no other claims of nationality. In other words, when the boarding team can’t find any documentation and no one on board says anything during the right of visit/approach questioning.
- 1MDLEA Blog Note: The Section 70502 page has also been updated to reflect the changes.