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Spring 2014 Proceedings
www.uscg.mil/proceedings
Another way the Coast Guard achieves border security is
through the International Port Security program. The Coast
Guard can reduce the risk of a threat entering the United
States from another country by assessing how well foreign
ports prevent unauthorized personnel or material from
gaining access to a vessel and by ensuring that cargo at a
particular facility is protected from tampering.
Across its missions, the Coast Guard is an essential compo-
nent of U.S. border enforcement and protection strategies.
The Coast Guard asserts U.S. sovereignty and protects the
territorial integrity of the nation in the maritime domain by
interdicting illegal narcotics at sea; helping to ensure safe,
orderly, and legal migration via maritime means; and assist-
ing other countries in securing ports. These law enforcement
activities are consistent with the law of nations, aligned with
the historical rights of sovereign states to safeguard their
borders, and serve to steadfastly reinforce the international
rule of law.
About the author:
LCDR Aaron Casavant is a U.S. Coast Guard attorney in the Response Law
Division of the Offce of Maritime and International Law. He provides legal
and policy advice to senior decision makers to facilitate Coast Guard mari-
time law enforcement operations including advising on domestic authorities
and international law.
Endnotes:
1.
Koh, T. Singapore Ambassador, Remarks at the Third U.N. Conference on the Law
of the Sea, Dec. 11, 1982.
2.
Essentially, "a state was entitled to exercise sovereignty over the maritime belt
extending seaward from its shore up to the extreme range of cannon shot, and
that the extreme range was about three marine miles from the low-water mark of
the shore." See The Three-Mile Limit: Its Juridical Status. 6 VAL. U. L. REV. 170; 1972.
3.
RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF THE FOREIGN RELATIONS LAW OF THE UNITED
STATES § 512 cmt. a. The right of innocent passage allows vessels to pass through
the territorial sea of another state subject to certain restrictions. Passage is inno-
cent "so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the
coastal State." LOSC, Article 19(1).
4.
Proclamation No. 5928, 54 Fed. Reg. 777; Dec. 27, 1988.
5.
A view affrmed by federal courts. See United States v. Dobson, 781 F.2d 1374, 1377,
9th Cir., 1986. (Coast Guard's boarding of a sailing vessel "one-quarter of a mile
inside the boundary for U.S. territorial waters" when it had a frm belief that the
vessel had come from international waters was considered a routine search at the
border and therefore constitutional.)
See also United States v. Whitmore, 536 F.Supp. 1284, 1292, D. Me; 1982 (noting that
a vessel was stopped and searched at the border when it had been observed cross-
ing into U.S. territorial sea and the border was two-tenths of a mile to its stern).
6.
All other zones afford the coastal state only sovereign rights, which are functional
in character and limited to specifed activities (e.g., enforcing sanitation laws in
the contiguous zone or exploiting natural resources in the U.S. EEZ of the Arctic
Ocean).
7.
Territorial and Maritime Dispute. (Nicar. v. Col.), 2012 I.C.J. 124; November 2012.
8.
Haw, J. The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands Dispute in the East China Sea, SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN; Jun. 7, 2013. Available at http://blogs.scientifcamerican.com/expe-
ditions/2013/06/07/the-senkakudiaoyu-island-dispute-in-the-east-china-sea/.
9.
Security Council Concerned at Threat Posed by Illicit Cross-Border Traffcking, U.N.
Press Release, SC/10624; Apr. 25, 2012.
10.
United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 152-153; 2004.
11.
United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 537; 1985.
12.
Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. at 152.
13.
United States v. Villamonte-Marquez, 462 U.S. 589; 1983.
14.
United States v. Hill, 939 F.2d 934, 936; 11th Cir; 1991. (For the purpose of suspicion-
less customs searches, the border is elastic.) In general, borders are comprised of
two components: (1) ports of entry; and (2) the expanse of land or water between
ports of entry. (Places such as international airports within the country and ports
within the country's territorial waters exemplify such functional equivalents.)
15.
Yule, K. Cong. Research Service, RL 31826. Protecting the U.S. Perimeter. Border
Searches Under the Fourth Amendment; 2009.
16.
Hill, 939 F.2d at 937.
17.
See 14 U.S.C.§143 ("Commissioned, warrant, and petty offcers of the Coast Guard
are deemed to be offcers of the customs... ."); 19 U.S.C.§1901 (The terms "offcer of
the customs" and "customs offcer" mean ... any commissioned, warrant, or petty
offcer of the Coast Guard... .)
18.
See, e.g., United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffc in Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances; 1988.
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