Chapter

The law of military operations at sea

Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg

The handbook of the international law of military operations

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015

p. 375-421

English

This chapter discusses the law of naval warfare. The law of naval warfare is not applicable in non-international armed conflict. Otherwise, the parties to such conflicts would be entitled to interfere with international navigation and aviation in areas beyond the territorial sovereignty of the respective State. Such conduct has not been recognized as in accordance with international law. States that have ordered their armed forces to comply with that law in situations other than international armed conflicts have been guided by purely operational and political considerations. The remainder of the chapter covers naval operations and navigational rights; warships and other platforms; general principles of the law of naval warfare; specially protected enemy vessels and aircraft; legitimate military targets at sea; methods and means of naval warfare; and economic warfare at sea.

• The handbook of the international law of military operations / ed. by Terry D. Gill and Dieter Fleck ; in collab. with Nils Melzer... [et al.]