Legal Definitions - hovering act

A hovering act refers to a law passed by a coastal nation that allows it to exercise criminal jurisdiction over ships and the individuals aboard them, even when those ships are located outside the nation's standard territorial waters. These laws are typically designed to prevent illicit activities, such as smuggling or illegal immigration, from occurring just beyond a country's immediate maritime borders, where perpetrators might otherwise attempt to evade the law. While a nation's full sovereignty is usually limited to its territorial sea, hovering acts are an accepted principle in international law, enabling countries to protect their security, economic interests, and public safety from threats originating in nearby international waters.

Here are a few examples to illustrate how a hovering act might apply:

• Imagine a large cargo ship, registered in a foreign country, anchoring just outside the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters of Nation X. Intelligence suggests this ship is acting as a "mother ship" for drug traffickers, planning to transfer illegal narcotics to smaller, faster boats that will then attempt to smuggle the drugs into Nation X's ports. Under a hovering act, Nation X's authorities could potentially board and seize the foreign cargo ship and arrest its crew, even though it was technically in international waters, because its clear intent was to facilitate a crime against Nation X.

  This illustrates how a hovering act allows a nation to extend its reach to prevent crimes like drug trafficking that are orchestrated just beyond its immediate maritime boundaries, targeting vessels that are clearly positioned to violate its laws.

• Consider a vessel carrying a large group of undocumented migrants. This vessel repeatedly approaches within 15 nautical miles of the coast of Nation Y, then retreats, seemingly waiting for an opportune moment or a rendezvous with smaller boats to bring the migrants ashore illegally. Nation Y has a hovering act that permits its coast guard to interdict vessels engaged in human smuggling up to 24 nautical miles from its coast if there is clear evidence of intent to violate immigration laws. In this scenario, Nation Y's authorities could intercept the vessel, even though it's outside their territorial waters, to prevent the illegal entry of people and apprehend the traffickers.

  This example demonstrates how a hovering act can be used to combat human trafficking and illegal immigration by allowing authorities to act against vessels "hovering" with criminal intent, rather than waiting for them to cross into sovereign territory.

• A tanker ship is observed by aerial surveillance repeatedly maneuvering in a suspicious pattern just 20 nautical miles off the coast of Nation Z, an area known for sensitive marine ecosystems. While not in Nation Z's territorial waters, the ship's actions suggest it might be preparing to illegally discharge hazardous waste or oil, which would then drift into Nation Z's protected coastal areas. If Nation Z has a hovering act specifically targeting environmental crimes, its maritime patrol could board the tanker to investigate, inspect its logs, and potentially prevent an environmental disaster, even though the act of dumping had not yet occurred within its territorial sea.

  This scenario highlights how hovering acts can be applied to prevent environmental crimes, allowing a nation to intervene against vessels that are positioned to cause harm to its environment, even if they are just outside its standard jurisdiction.