Right of visit

In the international maritime law, right of visit (also right of visitation, right of search) allows a belligerent warship during wartime to stop and board neutral merchant ship in order to verify that the ship nationality matches the declared one and its operation does not break the naval blockade, does not involve contraband, and does not provide non-neutral services to the enemy. The use of word "visit" probably refers to a misunderstanding of the French word visite, which in this context simply means search.

The visit is customarily made by warship boat that brings onboard of the merchant vessel an officer in charge and his assistant, armed with no more than sidearms. Alternatively, the commander of the warship might summon the merchant shipmaster aboard the warship with requested paperwork.

During the wartime, the right can be exercised by any commissioned ship or aircraft of a belligerent in both high seas and territorial waters of the belligerent or its enemies. During the peacetime or to non-belligerents, a right of visit does not apply, with the exceptions laid out in the Article 110 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS): suspicion of piracy, slavery, unlawful broadcasting, or in case of suspicion that the nationality of the merchant ship is actually the same as the one of warship or the merchant ship has no nationality.