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30 Greenpeace activists were arrested in the Arctic by Russian security forces. They were not traveling in Russia, but in international waters.
This week a court decides on their fate, but which law will apply on the open sea? And who has the final word there?
The sea: no borders, no politics. Only endless landscapes and water to the horizon. As such, it can lend itself to dreaming of freedom.
Some American freethinkers have a very alternative idea: floating cities on the open sea.
Supported by wealthy donors, The Seasteading Institute wants to create free and independent mini-states, floating peacefully where even large nations have no jurisdiction -- in international waters, such as these.
These are also international waters - but they are anything but peaceful. In September, activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace tried to climb a Russian oil platform in the Arctic Ocean.
Russian security forces responded with water cannons and guns. A little later, armed border guards came to board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and arrested all 30 environmental activists.
You can now face long prison terms in Russia for what the authorities there call "hooliganism."
This Friday, the fate of the Greenpeace protesters will be decided by the International Tribunal in Hamburg.
They will thus be deciding on a question that has concerned people for centuries:
Is the sea a free place for all? Or, is it a place where States can enforce strict laws, just as on land?
Until about 200 years ago, the International Law on the seas was quite simple: there were none.
There were only countries, struggling over the means to power and wealth. From the late Middle Ages, pirates and privateers made the world's oceans uncertain.
They would pirate, plunder and spread fear and terror.
In fact, many did so legally.
The British, Queen Elizabeth I, granted "Letters of marque," or a state-sponsored license to steal.
The kings could thus conceal attacks on other fleets, and buccaneers could make a good profit.
At least until 1856, when the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law made privateering illegal.
This was the end for privateers and pirates. Since then, there have been two main rules governing the maritime sector:
First, the flag decides. On the high seas, a ship is always subject to the laws of the country in which it is registered.
Second, the power of authorities extends only up to a fixed, but invisible line in the sea. Beyond that, international waters begin.
Until 1982, the country set this line firmly itself. Britain and the United States claimed about 3 nautical miles, while other countries claimed up to 12.
The invisible line marking international waters is the stuff of legend. Consequently, there remains a rumor that the Internet giant Google plans to build floating data centers beyond this line to protect its data from the U.S. government.
Recently Google has denied this.
They say that a mysterious floating construction site in the port of San Francisco is only an exhibition space.
They would not be the first to try to evade the authorities in international waters.
In the 1930s, a floating casino called the SS Rex operated off the coast of Los Angeles.
Gambling was strictly forbidden at that time in the United States, but the authorities could only enforce the ban up to 3 nautical miles off the coast.
So the Rex anchored 3.1 nautical miles from land. Completely legal.
Gambling ships remained popular destinations even after the war. Until gambling became legal on land.
In the sixties, radio pirates escaped to the sea. England's young people were tired of the old-fashioned program of the BBC.
Salvation came from private radio stations that broadcast outside the 3-mile zone on ships.
Or from abandoned anti-aircraft platforms from the second world war.
Former Army Major Roy Bates occupied one of these platforms and remained there.
It was the birth of a nation: Sealand. Bates called it his own country - on two rusty stilts in the middle of the North Sea - with its own currency and passport and himself as Prince.
To date, Bates grandson has defended the dream of their own kingdom and insists on the independence of Sealand.
For a long time this claim has had a good reason. Finally, Sealand is located 7 miles from the coast, in international waters.
In 1987 the British government extended their territory to 12 nautical miles into the sea.
This would seem to put Sealand back under the British Crown again. The United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea allowed all countries to expand their territory to 12 nautical miles.
Practical for the country. But what does this mean for the dreamers and their plans on the high seas?
For visions like these, the idea of floating nations?
In any case, seaseaders are ready to rise to the challenges, says the executive director of The Seasteading Institute in a telephone interview :
"The past many years there have been more and more laws that restrict what you can do on the high seas."
"But we are happy to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."
"Since, it's still not so restricting that it would prevent us from going out to sea and try something new. "
Hard times for all who dream of stateless freedom.
To account for valuable raw materials under the seabed, nations have secured much larger areas. So-called exclusive economic zones.
They range up to 200 miles into the ocean. Beyond that, on the open sea, there is no government and virtually else.
In order to realize their dream in spite of this difficulty, the American freedom visionaries have developed a contingency plan:
Coastal "host" countries to grant them refuge.
"We will create jobs for their citizens. We will build on their territory and we will use their services.
Our economic success will also benefit the whole country.
While we do not expect to be hosted by a big country, or any in the EU, but rather by a nimble nation that is still developing and that recognizes the great opportunities to work with us."
This means that the idea of the truly open sea still remains -- just a nice idea.
Even if you can still find a patch of international waters, international law of the sea will not be the only thing determined the rules, but also whoever has the biggest guns.
The Russian government has already proven this once, by arresting Greenpeace activists after the conflict - preferring to keep it as a Russian internal affair - international waters or otherwise.