Study On National Jurisdiction At Sea

National jurisdiction at sea is an important part of national jurisdiction and a new development of national sovereignty under modern law system of the sea. On the precondition of recognizing sea liberty and that the sea is the common wealth of mankind, according to the principle of national sovereignty over land, taking into consideration modern international community's demand for sea, United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea establishes the domination of territorial sea in different areas of sea and the exclusive jurisdiction of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental shelf of coastal states, and freedom of navigation in different sea areas of all countries(includes inland countries) and their common rights on high seas and international seabed.However, American and other countries refuse to join into the United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea because they consider that the 11th part (about international seabed) of the convention does not agree with their interests. So it causes the problem of so-called universality of the convention, and brings the contradiction between states parties and states non-parties in some areas. At the same time, as the concerted result of sea purpose of different countries, the convention avoids some problems (such as delimitation of sea areas, distribution of surplus rights and so on), and this will surely result in that there is no law to abide by when some countries are utilizing the ocean. The convention belongs to laws adjusting the sea ties among countries during peacetime, and the jurisdiction at sea it establishes is applicable during peacetime mainly. The convention does not regulate the National jurisdiction at sea in naval war or armed conflict at sea. During armed conflict at sea, different law of naval war are identical about National jurisdiction at sea during armed conflict at sea. This article analyses above problems in two parts: the conflict of National jurisdiction at sea and international jurisdiction at sea during armed conflict at sea.As the exception of National jurisdiction at sea, National immunity at sea includes mainly immunity of national judicial jurisdiction at sea in general sense. For study purpose, this article includes the immunity of acts of warfare at naval warfare subjecting to the limitation laid down in the law of naval war into the National immunity at sea.