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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here,

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Speaker 1: millions of people step onto a cruise ship each year

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Speaker 1: and leave the world behind. The laws of everyday reality

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Speaker 1: seem to not apply in these floating cities of swim

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Speaker 1: up bars, slot machines and far away ports of call.

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Speaker 1: And in a way it's true, the law of the

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Speaker 1: land doesn't quite make it to the high seas. This

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Speaker 1: is great news for a resident of a non gambling

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Speaker 1: state looking to get in some poker on vacation. But

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Speaker 1: what happens when crime occurs on a cruise ship? What

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Speaker 1: would happen to someone after they've stolen a wallet or

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Speaker 1: committed assault or murder on a cruise ship. About four

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Speaker 1: hundred people have gone missing from cruise ships in the

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Speaker 1: past twenty years, which works out to about twenty people

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Speaker 1: per year, which isn't much when you consider the tens

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Speaker 1: of millions of people who take cruises every year, But

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Speaker 1: of course, every life is precious, and it's a huge

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Speaker 1: number when you consider the difficulty even forcing the law

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Speaker 1: on the open seas. A very few of those cases

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Speaker 1: have been thoroughly investigated, but let alone solved. The problem

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Speaker 1: is that maritime law, the law that applies to people

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Speaker 1: when they're on the water, is famously convoluted. Not all

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Speaker 1: cruise ships are required to report crime statistics to any

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Speaker 1: governing body, so the question of who's supposed to investigate

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Speaker 1: when a crime does occur is a sticky one. International

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Speaker 1: maritime law requires that cruise ships take every possible measure

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Speaker 1: to provide safe passage, but every country has its own

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Speaker 1: version of maritime law, and when something goes wrong, jurisdiction

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Speaker 1: is difficult to sort out. A law on a cruise

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Speaker 1: ship or any other ship starts with the flag the

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Speaker 1: ship is flying under. A ship flies the flag of

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Speaker 1: the country where it's registered, and in general, the laws

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Speaker 1: on board a ship are the laws of that country. However,

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Speaker 1: when figuring out which laws apply to a sea vessel,

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Speaker 1: the territory that the vessel is currently in also must

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Speaker 1: be taken into consideration. A legal jurisdiction on the sea

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Speaker 1: goes something like this. Okay, first, you've got a country's

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Speaker 1: internal waters areas like bays and ports, which are part

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Speaker 1: of that country. So when a ship is docked at

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Speaker 1: the port of Miami, for example, all US and Florida

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Speaker 1: laws apply to the ship, its passengers, and its crew.

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Speaker 1: Almost all of the nation's laws also apply in its

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Speaker 1: territorial waters, which extend up to twelve miles from its coastline.

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Speaker 1: That's why a ship departing from a US port generally

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Speaker 1: can't open gambling activities until it's twelve miles out, since

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Speaker 1: gambling is illegal in most parts of the United States. Then,

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Speaker 1: a nation has limited jurisdiction in its contiguous zone, the

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Speaker 1: area twelve miles to twenty four miles from its coast.

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Speaker 1: A country has certain rights within that zone, such as

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Speaker 1: patrolling its borders. For instance, within twenty four miles of

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Speaker 1: the US coast, the US Coast Guard is allowed to

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Speaker 1: board any ship suspected of drug smuggling, regardless of which

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Speaker 1: flag flying under. But once a ship is twenty four

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Speaker 1: miles from any coastline, it's on the high seas or

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Speaker 1: international waters. With the exception of certain rights within the

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Speaker 1: contiguous zone, the law of that ship is the law

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Speaker 1: of the country whose flag it's flying. So a Liberia

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Speaker 1: registered cruise ship that's twenty five miles off the coast

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Speaker 1: of California isn't subject to US law, It's subject to

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Speaker 1: Liberian law. Lawsuits against a cruise line are different. Though

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Speaker 1: a while it might seem like a US citizen robbed

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Speaker 1: in US territorial waters off the coast of Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: could sue the cruise line in Los Angeles, it actually

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Speaker 1: depends on the cruise ship ticket's fine print. If the

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Speaker 1: ticket says the cruise line can only be sued in Seattle,

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Speaker 1: then a Los Angeles court will almost always refuse to

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Speaker 1: hear the case. This can all be bad news for

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Speaker 1: the victim of cruise ship crime, but for the millions

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Speaker 1: of people who take a cruise so they can engage

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Speaker 1: in all of the natured debauchery they want, the legal

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Speaker 1: freedom of the high seas is actually good news. After all,

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Speaker 1: if US law applies on a US registered ship, how

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Speaker 1: can that ship allow gambling. It's all about those international waters.

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Speaker 1: From the nineteen fifties to nineteen ninety a cruise ship

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Speaker 1: flying a U S flag had no gambling on board

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Speaker 1: a US law applied. End of story. The law changed

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Speaker 1: after the gambling ban left only three US registered ships

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Speaker 1: running the United States flag. Cruise ship competitive. This Act

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Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety one made it legal for a US

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Speaker 1: registered cruise ship to offer gambling once it made it

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Speaker 1: to international waters. Since then, the US cruis and stree

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Speaker 1: has been thriving. Aside from gambling, cruise ships typically offer

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Speaker 1: inclusive alcohol packages as part of the price of an

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Speaker 1: adult ticket. With the cruise ship staff determining whether someone

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Speaker 1: should be cut off, and considering that no one on

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Speaker 1: board is going to be driving home, few people are

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Speaker 1: cut off. However, This, along with railings capable of being climbed,

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Speaker 1: might account for a few of those cruise ship disappearances,

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Speaker 1: and this legal leniency could extend beyond gambling. But technically,

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Speaker 1: a cruise ship registered where cannabis use is legal could

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Speaker 1: allow passengers to smoke pot on board when it's in

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Speaker 1: international waters, although it would run the risk of charges

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Speaker 1: of illegal smuggling between countries. And when a baby is

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Speaker 1: born on a cruise ship, the question of citizenship arises.

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Speaker 1: This seldom happens, if ever, because cruise ships, like airlines,

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Speaker 1: typically refuse to let a pregnant person in their third

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Speaker 1: trimester on board. But still it's an interesting question, and

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Speaker 1: like all other cruise ship laws, there's no cut and

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Speaker 1: dried answer on a cruise ship. Like on a plane,

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Speaker 1: the simplest rule is that the baby's citizenship follows the parents.

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Speaker 1: So if a Canadian tourist gives birth on a ship,

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Speaker 1: the baby is Canadian. But of course it's not always

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Speaker 1: that simple. H Technically, if that Canadian gives birth in

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Speaker 1: un US territorial waters, US internal waters, or on a

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Speaker 1: US registered ship in international waters, the baby might be

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Speaker 1: able to claim US citizenship. The case would probably end

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Speaker 1: up in court. Most cruise ship related legal matters are

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Speaker 1: settled on a case by case basis. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: based on the article if I'm on a cruise ship,

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Speaker 1: what loss do I have to adhere to? On how

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Speaker 1: stuffworks dot Com? Written by Julia Layton. Brainstuff is production

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Speaker 1: by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com

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Speaker 1: and is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts my

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Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,