United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allows a state to extend their coastal state authority beyond its territorial seas in limited circumstances. Article 111, which allows for the right of hot pursuit, is one of those situations, and the right of hot pursuit is an exception to the general rule that a vessel on the high seas is subject only to the jurisdiction of the state whose flag the vessel flies. Article 111 states, in part, the following:
1. The hot pursuit of a foreign ship may be undertaken when the competent authorities of the coastal State have good reason to believe that the ship has violated the laws and regulations of that State. Such pursuit must be commenced when the foreign ship or one of its boats is within the internal waters, the archipelagic waters, the territorial sea or the contiguous zone of the pursuing State, and may only be continued outside the territorial sea or the contiguous zone if the pursuit has not been interrupted. It is not necessary that, at the time when the foreign ship within the territorial sea or the contiguous zone receives the order to stop, the ship giving the order should likewise be within the territorial sea or the contiguous zone. If the foreign ship is within a contiguous zone, as defined in article 33, the pursuit may only be undertaken if there has been a violation of the rights for the protection of which the zone was established.
What does that mean? In simpler terms, this section implies that coastal states can chase vessels outside the initial location (i.e. the maritime zone) where a suspect vessel was sighted if they have a reasonable belief that the said vessel broke the coastal state’s laws within the original sighting zone. Pursuit can start in the coastal state’s internal waters (IW), territorial sea (TS), or contiguous zone (CZ), and continue outside those maritime zones as long as the coastal state signaled the suspect vessel to stop and the chase of the suspect vessel is not interrupted.
In other words, there are essentially four “elements” to establish hot pursuit:
- Subject vessel must be in a zone where U.S. has jurisdiction (internal, TS, CZ, EEZ);
- There is good reason to believe the vessel violated a U.S. law applicable in the same zone;
- Signal to heave to while vessel is still in the zone; and
- Pursuit is continuous and uninterrupted.
For the visual learners out there, it looks like this:
As you can see, once the vessel is stopped and boarded, the law enforcement agency (e.g., the Coast Guard) has the same jurisdiction that existed in original zone. The right of hot pursuit, however, ceases as soon as the ship pursued enters the TS of its own state or the TS of another state.
Take-away: Hot pursuit justifies the enforcement of a coastal state’s law outside the jurisdiction in which the suspect vessel broke those law as long as the suspect vessel is told to “heave to” and the chase is continuous.