International Waterways - Straits, Canals, Rivers

law seas panama shipping

Narrow channels of marginal sea or inland waters through which international shipping has a right of passage.

In INTERNATIONAL LAW, international waterways are straits, canals, and rivers that connect two areas of the high seas or enable ocean shipping to reach interior ports on international seas, gulfs, or lakes that otherwise would be land-locked. International waterways also may be rivers that serve as international boundaries or traverse successively two or more states. Ships have a right of passage through international waterways. This right is based on customary international law and treaty arrangements.

CROSS-REFERENCES

Admiralty and Maritime Law; Territorial Waters.

Additional Topics

International Waterways - Straits

Since the 1960s a great majority of coastal states have extended their claims on territorial seas from three miles to 12 miles from the low-water mark, some even farther. This change has been a matter of concern to the U.S. government, as a 12-mile limit converts 121 straits to territorial seas, some of which have strategic military importance. …

International Waterways - Canals

With respect to international marine traffic, canals joining areas of the high seas or waters leading to them are geographically in the same position as straits. However, the significant canals have been constructed in accordance with international treaties or later placed under conventional legal regimes. The Suez Canal, located in Egypt, and the Panama Canal are the two most important canals in …

International Waterways - Rivers

Customary international law has never granted equal access and rights to countries that share navigable rivers either as boundaries between them or as waterways that traverse them successively. Freer use of international rivers has occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the negotiation of treaties. The building of the St. Lawrence Seaway was complicated by the failure of Canada…

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