ABSTRACT
The maritime space in South East Asia is an important transit route between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which makes uninterrupted navigation of vessels a critical issue of maritime security. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) 1 provides four different legal regimes for navigation of ships: innocent passage in the territorial sea or archipelagic waters of a coastal state, 2 transit passage and overflight in straits used for international navigation, 3 archipelagic sea lanes passage and overflight, 4 and freedom of navigation and overflight on the high seas. 5 In South East Asia all of these four legal regimes of navigation are present, which sets a complex legal context in which international shipping operates while confronting multiple regional maritime security issues, such as piracy and armed robbery at sea.
