ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses how maritime cabotage law and public international law have developed concurrently. It identifies the important junctions and elucidates the salient commonalities of both areas of the law. The chapter describes the theoretical paradigm of the evolution of the law of maritime cabotage with public international law serving as the benchmark. Bearing in mind the different views, there are two angles for looking at the intersection of internationality and national maritime frontiers. Globalization has shaped maritime cabotage law frameworks in such a way that the legislation of maritime cabotage laws by national and regional governments is seen through the lens of protecting the domestic maritime sector from foreign competition. Many maritime nations in the twenty-first century have opted to compromise by accepting the idea of an international relay scheme. Maritime cabotage law in the twenty-first century has fallen firmly under the regulatory discretion of national governments.