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saerTaSoriso samarTlis Jurnali, #1, 2008 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, N1, 2008
2. Military manures or study by exercising
weapons of any kind;
3. Activity aimed at collecting information to
the prejudice of the defence or security of
Georgia;
4. Act of propaganda aimed at affecting the
defence or security interests of Georgia;
5. The launching or taking on board of any
aircraft;
6. The launching or taking on board of any
military device;
7. The loading or unloading of any commodity
and currency or person contrary to the
customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws
and regulations;
8. Wilful and serious pollution of marine environment;
9. Fishing;
10. The carrying out of scientific-research,
survey or hydrographic activities;
11. Act aimed at interfering with any systems
of communication and electronic systems
or other facilities or installations;
12. Any other activity not having a direct bearing
on innocent passage. 37
However, the right of innocent passage
does not restrict the jurisdiction of coastal
States over such ships. In particular, the coastal
State is entitled to adopt laws and establish
regulations on navigation and navigational
aids, as well as cables, living resources of the
sea, fishing and other issues. 38 Throughout
the innocent passage, all ships are obliged to
perform and observe laws and regulations of
a coastal State. But, the costal State shall not
establish discriminative rules with respect to
the flag or type of a ship. 39
Following to the Convention, in exceptional
cases the coastal State may suspend the
rights of innocent passage in specified areas
of its territorial sea for the purposes of security
protection of its country, or during the military
exercises. But, such suspension shall be
done on non-discriminative basis and take
effect only after having been duly published. 40
Provisions of part XII of the Convention entitle
the costal State to exercise executive jurisdiction
over the ship violating the regulations
on the protection of maritime environment. 41
The costal state is not entitled to prevent passage
unless a ship is polluting its territorial sea
“wilfully and seriously”. Though, there is no any
common criterion on the “serious” pollution and
it depends on particular features of a coasts
and legislation of the coastal State, since the
later is entitled to adopt laws for the ships in
the regime of innocent passage, regarding the
environmental protection. Although, in accordance
with the same Convention, the coastal
State whilst exercising its legislative jurisdiction
is not entitled to adopt laws, which in fact restricts
the right to an innocent passage. 42 For
the purposes of ensuring environmental protection,
following to Article 22 of the Convention,
the coastal State is entitled to establish
sea lines and corridors for vessels ships, which
shall be applied by the latter during the innocent
passage.
As regards to executive jurisdiction of
coastal State, in accordance with paragraph
2 of Article 220 of the Convention, a State is
entitled to inspect or detain the ship, where
the evidence warrants that while it was staying
in its territorial sea has violated the laws
of the State, regarding prevention, reduction
and control of marine environment pollution
from the vessels adopted on the basis of international
law. However, the abovementioned
regulation shall be applied to vessels in of innocent
passage, without prejudice to Articles 24
and 27.
As it was stated above, in accordance with
Article 24, in the process of exercising legislative
jurisdiction, the coastal State shall not
hamper the right of innocent passage. Article
27 provides for the terms of exercising criminal
jurisdiction on the territorial sea that will
be discussed below in more details.
During the innocent passage, regulations
adopted by the coastal State on introduction
of permit system for innocent passage of vessel
may be considered as an expression of
State sovereignty. Especially it refers to warships
and nuclear-powered ships. 43
Regarding to the criminal jurisdiction over
the territorial sea, Article 26 of the Convention
grants the State with the right to exercise
it only in three cases.
Firss case concerns the commitment of a
crime on a board of a ship in innocent passage,
if:
1. The consequences of the crime extend to
the coastal State;
2. The crime is of a kind to disturb the peace
of the coastal State and/or the good order
in its territorial sea;
3. The assistance of the local authorities has
been requested by the captain of the ship
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