Port State Jurisdiction over Vessel Information: Territoriality, Extra-territoriality and the Future of Shipping Regulation

This article discusses the use of port state jurisdiction to impose information requirements on visiting foreign vessels, with reference to the maritime zone-based approach to jurisdiction taken in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and other maritime Conventions. It argues that port states have extensive options for requesting information from vessels in port, even if that information relates to matters arising beyond the state's maritime zones (as in the case of the European Union's 2015 regime for monitoring vessel co2 emissions), without making any excessive claim to extra-territorial jurisdiction. After discussing the manner in which port states may choose to deploy these options in practice, the article addresses some broader trends connected with the increasing automation of shipping and the ever-wider availability of shipping-related information, and the impact these developments may have on international law and shipping regulation in the long term.