Maritime drug interdiction in international law

Abstract

The study focuses on the interdiction of trafficking in illicit drugs at sea as one part of the general problem of illicit drug trafficking. More specifically, the study focuses on the legal framework for the interdiction of illicit maritime drug trafficking under international law. Firstly, the general legal framework of international law has been examined, followed by an examination of the specific legal framework for maritime drug interdiction. Some attention is given to the question of how practice of states in that area of activity have contributed to the interpretation and application of the relevant provisions of the legal framework. Another issue is whether or not that practice has contributed to the formation of customary international law. For the research the point of view is that of a coastal state and the point of view of an intervening state. The research has concentrated on the legal framework of public international law, including the law of the sea, for maritime drug interdiction. This study is concerned with the international law of the sea - that is to say, with rules that bind states in their international relations concerning maritime matters. More specifically, the study is concerned with rules that bind states in interdicting illicit drug trafficking at sea. Maritime drug-interdiction treaties may provide legal bases to national law in order to address drug-related offences. This study does not discuss, except incidentally, national law relating to the conduct at sea. Nonetheless, this leaves a considerable body of law, mainly provisions found in treaties and customary international law, within the purview of this study. Illicit drug trafficking at sea forms part of a larger complex of criminal operations. Present forms of maritime crimes (in a broad definition of the term) can be divided into two categories. One category concerns activities directly linked to the sea and occur there, such as piracy or illegal fishing. The other category concerns activities that form a part of a larger complex of criminal operations, which mainly take place on land, for example smuggling migrants or the illegal transport of wastes. Trafficking in illicit drugs belongs to this second category. The sea is the area par excellence where international law establishes the conditions for states to exercise their jurisdiction. Although, in principle, states have complete jurisdiction within their own territory, at sea this jurisdiction is clearly defined and limited by international law. Rules of customary international law have been applicable to the uses of the ocean for hundreds of years. It is in that context that maritime drug interdiction has been studied.