Place of Transit Passage in the System of International Maritime Law and Its Comparison With Innocent Passage

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Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (adopted in Montego Bay on December 10, 1982), hereinafter referred to as UNCLOS, provides for both innocent passage through territorial seas and transit passage through straits. The legal technique used in their description suggests that these rights have a similar legal nature. The subject of this study is the investigation of historical context of the development of innocent passage through straits in the decision of the International Court of Justice, as well as the subsequent formation of the term "transit passage" in UNCLOS. A comparison will be made between the terms "innocent passage" and "transit passage" contained in UNCLOS. In conclusion, the author will present the views of various authors on the correlation of these legal terms. This study is based on international legal acts, acts of international judicial institutions, official statements by state representatives, as well as doctrinal research by foreign authors. The methodological framework of the research consists of general scientific (methods of logical and systemic analysis, dialectical method, methods of deduction and induction) and private scientific (historical-legal, comparative-legal, formal-legal methods) methods of cognition. Based on international legal acts, acts of international judicial institutions, as well as doctrinal research, the author compared the rights of transit and innocent passages, identifying their common and distinct features. Taking into account the obtained data, the author concluded that transit passage is a relatively new institution of international maritime law that has been developed based on the concept of innocent passage, applicable in relation to international straits in the case of "Corfu Channel," determined by the International Court of Justice and subsequently codified in the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone (adopted in Geneva on April 29, 1958). However, despite the common historical background, at present, the concepts of innocent and transit passages have different scopes of application and represent two separate legal institutions.

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