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Rights and Obligations of an Archipelagic State in law of the sea, customary international law and LOSC

Article 44 of the LOSC applies mutatis mutandis to archipelagic sea lanes passage. It follows that archipelagic States shall not hamper archipelagic sea lanes passage and shall give appropriate publicity to any danger to navigation or overflight within or over the strait of which they have knowledge. In addition to this, there shall be no suspension of archipelagic sea lanes passage.
An archipelagic State may adopt laws and regulations relating to the prevention of marine pollution in archipelagic waters by virtue of Articles 42(1) and 54 of the LOSC. Ships in archipelagic sea lanes passage are required to comply with generally accepted international regulations, procedures and practice for the prevention, reduction and control of pollution from ships under Articles 39(2)(b) and 54 of the LOSC. Although Articles 220 and 233 of the LOSC give the coastal State additional enforcement jurisdiction regulating pollution from ships in the territorial sea and the straits, these provisions contain no reference to archipelagic waters. However, Article 233 refers to Article 42 concerning laws and regulations of States bordering straits relating to transit passage; and Article 42 applies mutatis mutandis to archipelagic waters in accordance with Article 54. Therefore, it seems logical to argue that Article 233 is also applicable to archipelagic waters.

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