Casual Navigation talks a bit about this: What Law Applies In International Waters? Essentially, the ship needs to be registered to a country and the laws of that country apply while on the ship. Most ships register themselves in a country with very lax laws, known as a “flag of convenience”. The laws of Libera, Panama, and Marshall Islands must be pretty convenient since those are countries most ships get registered.
What happens if you don’t register your ship? It’s the same as not having a passport. You’re going to have a hard time when you want to dock at a port.
But i think there are some crimes that will be prosecuted by your home country anyway, regardless of where the ship is registered. Like if 2 US citizens got on a ship registered to a country where murder is legal, and one killed the other, that person would still be prosecuted for murder when they returned to US soil or any country that has an extradition treaty with the US
Casual Navigation talks a bit about this: What Law Applies In International Waters? Essentially, the ship needs to be registered to a country and the laws of that country apply while on the ship. Most ships register themselves in a country with very lax laws, known as a “flag of convenience”. The laws of Libera, Panama, and Marshall Islands must be pretty convenient since those are countries most ships get registered.
What happens if you don’t register your ship? It’s the same as not having a passport. You’re going to have a hard time when you want to dock at a port.
But i think there are some crimes that will be prosecuted by your home country anyway, regardless of where the ship is registered. Like if 2 US citizens got on a ship registered to a country where murder is legal, and one killed the other, that person would still be prosecuted for murder when they returned to US soil or any country that has an extradition treaty with the US
I don’t think there is such a country?
Well....
The US, if you’re a white police officer killing minorities
Lol