Freedom Of Overflight

Freedom of overflight is in large part uncontroversial. However, several recent international disputes and subsequent scrutiny of the exercise of coastal State jurisdiction in international airspace have highlighted the problematic legal nature of this freedom – namely, how a State’s ‘creeping jurisdiction’ may encroach upon the rights of other States. This groundbreaking book examines in depth the ambiguous areas at the nexus of air law and the law of the sea with respect to the balance between coastal State jurisdiction and freedom of overflight, thus providing greater legal certainty regarding State actions involving overflight in international airspace. The author identifies and thoroughly examines three highly salient matters impacting overflight in international waters: the right of a State to establish safety zones around maritime constructions and the legitimacy of extending these safety zones to the airspace; what, if anything, under international civil aviation law specifically, prohibits a State from discriminating against the aircraft of another State in international airspace within its flight information region; and whether air defence identification zones can be justified as customary international law. Also considered is the law of the sea concerning transit passage through international straits and archipelagic sea lanes as applied to airspace users. This is the first detailed study of overflight to combine the perspectives of international civil aviation law and the law of the sea. As such, it presents a comprehensive analysis of the legality of attempts by coastal States to exercise jurisdiction in international airspace over aircraft registered in other States, thus taking a giant step towards determining what freedom of overflight entails by establishing its legitimate limitations. It will be welcomed by practitioners, policymakers, and academics concerned with international transportation, national defence, international trade, and other areas of international law.

The South China Sea, where a number of great powers and regional players contend for influence, has emerged as one of the most potentially explosive regions in the world today. What can be done to reduce the possibility of conflict, solve the outstanding territorial problems, and harness the potential of the sea to promote regional development, environmental sustainability and security? This book, with contributions from leading authorities in China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore and the United States, seeks to illuminate these questions.

The right of transit passage in straits and the analogous right of archipelagic sealanes passage in archipelagic states, negotiated in the 1970s and embodied in the 1982 UNCLOS, sought to approximate the freedom of navigation and overflight while expressly recognising the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the coastal state over the waters concerned. However, the allocation of rights and duties of the coastal state and third states is open to interpretation. Recent developments in state practice, such as Australia's requirement of compulsory pilotage in the Torres Strait, the bridge across the Great Belt and the proposals for a bridge across the Strait of Messina, the enhanced environmental standards applicable in the Strait of Bonifacio and Canada's claims over the Arctic Route, make it necessary to reassess the whole common law of straits. The Legal Regime of Straits examines the complex relationship between the coastal state and the international community.

The need for freedoms of navigation in regional waters is frequently mentioned in statements from regional forums, but a common understanding of what constitutes a particular freedom of navigation or the relevant law is lacking. This book discusses how law, politics and strategy intersect to provide different perspectives of freedoms on navigation in the Asia-Pacific region. These freedoms are very important in this distinctively maritime region, but problems arise over interpreting the navigational regimes under the law of the sea, especially with regard to the rights of foreign warships to transit another country’s territorial sea without prior notification or authorisation of the coastal state, and with determining the availability of high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight in an exclusive economic zone. The book explores these issues, referring in particular to the position of the main protagonists on these issues in Asian waters – the United States and China – with their strongly opposing views. The book concludes with a discussion of the prospects for either resolving these different perspectives or for developing confidence-building measures that would reduce the risks of maritime incidents. Providing a comprehensive yet concise overview of the various different factors affecting freedom of navigation, this book will be a valuable resource for those working or studying in the fields of international relations, maritime security and the law of the sea.

The Free Sea offers a unique, single-volume analysis of incidents in American history that affected U.S. freedom of navigation at sea. The book spans more than 200 years, beginning in the Colonial era with the Quasi-War with France in 1798 and extending to contemporary Freedom of Navigation operations in the South China Sea. Through wars and numerous crises with North Korea, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Russia and China, freedom of navigation has been a persistent challenge for the United States, a nation reliant on open seas for economic prosperity, military security and global order. This volume focuses on the struggle to retain freedom of the seas. Challenges to U.S. warships and maritime commerce have pushed, and continue to challenge, the United States to vindicate its rights through diplomatic, legal, and military means, underscoring the need for the strategic resolve in the global maritime commons.

In 1968, the American scholar John Cobb Cooper stated that too little attention has been given to the legal control of flight above the high seas which cover a large percentage of the earth's surface. With certain notable exceptions this has remained true despite the acknowledged commercial, strategic and environmental significance of the airspace over the high seas.

Now in a third, revised edition, Excessive Maritime Claims by J. Ashley Roach and Robert W. Smith is designed for law of the sea and maritime law specialists. The book draws on published governmental material in the public domain, specifically the U.S., and addresses recent progress in maritime security, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by sea, piracy, and protection of underwater cultural heritage. As a result of significant developments in the law of the sea, primarily with reference to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, Excessive Maritime Claims provides up to date coverage of current affairs as well as introduce new topics such as: submarine cables, polar areas, environmental protection, sovereign immunity and sunken ships, and maritime law enforcement.