Unconventional legal approaches to protecting underwater infrastructure
Lott, A.; Rademaker, M. (2025). Unconventional legal approaches to protecting underwater infrastructure. NATO Seminar on Seabed Security. The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies: The Hague. 19 pp.
Part of: NATO Seminar on Seabed Security. The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies: The Hague. , more
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| Authors | | Top |
- Lott, A.
- Rademaker, M., editor
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| Abstract |
The international law of the sea grants hardly any protection to underwater infrastructure
that is located outside the limits of the territorial sea. The current protection regime of crossborder
submarine cables rests mostly on the 1884 Paris Convention. The 1884 Convention
enables the limited number of its States Parties to merely check the documents and question
the crew of ships flying under their flag for suspected cable cuts. There are no treaty provisions
that would explicitly address the protection of submarine pipelines.
In this context, this contribution explores unconventional legal approaches that have the
potential to close the security gap regarding the protection of underwater infrastructure
based on the peacetime legal framework of maritime law enforcement. Arguably, any e ective
measures to increase the protection of critical underwater infrastructure would likely somewhat
negatively impact the freedom of navigation.
The potential use of measures debated in this study stem from a wide range of legal concepts,
including piracy, terrorism, marine environmental protection in relation to pipeline ruptures,
universal jurisdiction, plea of necessity, safety zones, the legal regime of straits, and compulsory
pilotage. Depending on the political will, these legal concepts can be employed by
coastal States in time-critical situations where they need to decide on interdicting a ship
suspected of damaging underwater infrastructure in their maritime area. |
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