Abstract
This article argues that there is no international legal impediment to any State robustly asserting prescriptive, enforcement, or adjudicative jurisdiction over vessels without nationality. It first examines the rules relating to vessel nationality to demonstrate the strong international preference that vessels be properly flagged in a particular State. It then examines the phenomenon of vessels without nationality, with a focus on what constitutes statelessness, and what the contemporary understanding is of the jurisdictional effect of that status. It concludes with a legal analysis, based on the Lotus principle and a recent U.S. appellate court decision that relied upon it, of the international entitlements and/or restrictions relating to vessels without nationality. Ultimately, the article’s intent is to demonstrate that there is no international legal impediment to States taking what is characterized in the article as a more assertive approach to, ultimately, deeming vessels to be stateless and robustly exercising jurisdiction over such vessels based on that status.
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