Overflight of organic aircraft and the territorial sea.

摘要

This thesis explores the issues of navigation and overflight of the territorial sea by military aircraft operating from warships, known as organic aircraft. A review of maritime zones in the Law of the Sea from a Canadian perspective reveals a preference for the exercise of coastal State jurisdiction on significant ocean space, to the potential detriment of freedom of navigation advocated by maritime powers. Current uses of organic air are challenged by a legal framework which does not take into account the unique relationship between ships and the aircraft they carry. The regimes of passage do not allow overflight when it would be most needed. The weaknesses in the generous interpretation of navigational rights advocated by commentators associated with the US Navy and a climate of significant preoccupation towards security of the coasts are not conductive to any changes in the legal framework that would secure special freedoms of overflight for organic aircraft.