It provides warships or other duly authorised vessels the legal authority to board foreign non-sovereign immune vessels that they encounter on the high seas when there is a ‘reasonable ground for suspecting’ that any of the five situations set forth in this Rule is present – the vessel is engaged in piracy, slave trading, or unauthorised broadcasting; the vessel appears to be without nationality; or the vessel is of the nationality of the visiting vessel, even when flying a foreign flag or refusing to show its flag. The same customary law right is codified in Article 58 for an EEZ.
