I love making interesting videos. The most interesting topics are often exceptions—deviations
from the norm. All of us live in countries, where there are
laws and rules and governing bodies telling us what we can and can’t do. But, 70% of the world is ocean, where there
are no countries—no governing bodies to tell us what’s right and wrong. That’s why maritime law exists. Let’s start with a hypothetical: a baby
is born on a cruise ship 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 some fictional 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 distance a cannon
could shoot off shore—but that has since changed. Those twelve miles are the property of a country. They can do pretty much whatever they please
in it and all domestic laws apply. Foreign ships are, however, sometimes allowed
to enter into these waters under the principle of innocent passage. If ships have an innocent purpose—which
does not include fishing, polluting, weapons practice, or spying—they are allowed to
pass through territorial waters of a foreign nation without permission as long as they
do so quickly and without stopping on 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 enforced in the contiguous zone. Beyond the contiguous waters is the Exclusive
Economic Zone, also known as the EEZ. This zone extends 200 nautical miles from
shore. Beyond the territorial waters the EEZ is in
international waters, however, only the country who holds the exclusive economic zone has
the right to harvest natural resources in this area. This law was originally set up to help with
disputes over fishing rights but has since been incredibly useful with the boom in oil
drilling. All these laws do, however, occasionally cause
some disputes due 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 huge untapped oil reserves. China has this land so it says it has all
this water, Malaysia has this land so it says it has all this water, Vietnam has this land
so it says it has all this water, Brunei has this land so it says it has all this water,
the Philippines has this land so it says it has all this water, and Taiwan has this land
so it says it has all 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 civilly by 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 less cordial. So, our cruise ship baby. Let’s change the hypothetical and say that
the cruise ship was sailing in US territorial waters—less than 12 miles away from shore. Every oceangoing vessel is required to be
registered in some country. You’ll notice that most large cruise ships
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 costs
are 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 territorial waters. Once a ship is in the territorial waters of
a country, the onboard laws switch to 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 any baby born within the country, a baby born
in US territorial waters is lucky enough to receive the world’s 8th most powerful passport. There are two exceptions to this rule. Foreign Diplomats visiting or living in the
US with a diplomatic passport are not subject to the laws of the US or any other nation
other than their own. Consequently, the babies of foreign diplomats
do not automatically receive American citizenship. Additionally, the babies of individuals staging
a hostile invasion or occupation of American territory are not granted American citizenship
upon birth. Here’s where things get even more confusing. Even though a ship in international waters
is an extension of the territory of the nation it’s registered in law wise, the rules for
nationality are different. The United Nations Treaty on the Reduction
of Statelessness, which is followed by… some… countries, says that a baby born in
international waters should just take the nationality of their parents. Most of the world’s countries use the principle
of bloodline to determine if a baby should get citizenship rather than whether or not
a baby was born in the country. However, there are some countries that won’t
give citizenship to a baby born outside the country. In that case, 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 foreign countries so they could serve alcohol in international
waters. In the mid-century, casino boats left from
many cities where gambling was illegal to partake in legal gambling in international
waters. In 2005, entrepreneur Roger Green started
SeaCode, a company that planned to evade 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 have to abide by US wage laws or go through the
difficult visa application process. The idea never came to fruition but the technical
legality of it just shows how convoluted maritime law is. The laws for airplanes are pretty much the
same. Technically, once an airplane has taken off,
the laws of the country of registration apply. The only law that is applies and differs among
countries is the drinking age. A British Airways flight from New York to
London can serve alcohol to 18 year olds, however, in most cases, airlines choose to
follow the laws of the origin country. Spacecraft also follow very similar laws,
and luckily, I have a whole other video just about Space Law. Make sure to check it out here. You can also click here to subscribe to Wendover
Productions and follow me on Twitter @WendoverPro. Please also be sure to watch my last video
on Why College is so Expensive. It’s a great video so please check it out
if you haven’t done so already. Thank you for watching and I’ll see you
soon with another Wendover Productions video.
"You're a crook, Captain Hook!"
Another really interesting example is the Dutch initiative "women on waves" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_on_Waves ). Its a boat with medical staff and equipment on board to perform abortions. They pick up pregnant women that want abortions from countries where abortions are illegal and then sail out to international water where Dutch laws apply in order to legally perform abortions.
This is my video! Thanks for posting! (Obligatory Twitter plug: @wendoverpro)
Hello, Merchant Navy officer here. Great Video, I really appreciate that someone touched on this subject. I feel like the a subject of Piracy should have been mentioned as the mess that is Maritime and international law made it very difficult to fight the pirates effectively. For example, my US counterparts are known to carry guns in the Merchant Marine (as the Americans call it) if the ship is limited to domestic voyages, however i serve on the British flagged ships and as some of you may know pistols are.... prohibited in the UK for private ownership, that meant that the private security guards that boarded our ship to protect us either had no weapons (useless) or had to make it legal. In order to board a UK flagged ship the security guards had to be equipped with bolt action rifles and pump action shotguns (with limited capacity), they were not allowed to carry pistols any semiautomatic or full-automatic rifles. Why only bolt action and shotguns? Cause they are allowed for private ownership as hunting weapons. (hunting Somali pirate that is). This was very frustrating to me as a seafarer at the height of pirate activity in the Somalian waters. The most effective deterrent against the pirates hands down were armed security guards, and it took for the UK 5 years! to allow vessels to carry armed guards without the fear of prosecution, and even so they are still discouraged (cause guns are bad mmmkay), completely ignoring the fact that no vessel with armed escort was ever kidnapped. In comparison Japan still prohibits weapons of any sort on their merchant vessels (including katanas, no joke) and Russia has few pistols in a safe as standard equipment of a ship. So You can see on that example how maritime law and laws of individual countries make our life difficult. I could go on and on and on (looking at You USA!)
But what about Bird Law?
The only thing I took away from this is that I need to find a cruise ship registered in Amsterdam.
What type of video is this? I mean, what term should I search for on Youtube? "Infotainment" doesn't seem to be getting me what I want. I'd like to watch videos like this and like CGP Grey, etc.
Any recommendations as far as channels?
You're a crook captain hook!
Take to the sea!