Convention on Operational Admiralty Law

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The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was the predecessor law to the primary two laws utilised by the UNSC and UEG to delineate proper uses of space travel, and the conventions on military and civilian starships. It was expanded under UEG Authority to become these two laws, the UNSC Conventions on Operational Admiralty Law of 2315 (COAL), which regulates and governs what actions can and cannot be performed in space by various parties. This is a military code of conduct and is echoed in legislature by the UEG Charter on Active Space Travel (CAST), which regulates civilian activity to the same extent.
As specified in the UNSC Convention on Operational Admiralty Law, it shall be a crime for any UNSC or CMA vessel to engage in ‘seditious’, ‘exploitative’, or ‘deceitful’ practices. This include but are not limited to;
*Article Zero One: The intentional betrayal or Friendly Fire of a friendly vessel or crew (The Blue-on-Blue or BOB’s Law).
*Article Zero Two: The intentional extortion or blackmail of either military or civilian vessels or crew.
*Article Zero Three: The intentional non-consensual boarding of other vessels without justification or probable cause.
*Article Zero Four: The intentional detaining of a vessel or crew without justification or probable cause.
*Article Zero Five: The intentional incitement of a reactor fuel dump, self destruct event, or radiation spike of one’s own or another vessel or crew.
*Article Zero Six: The intentional breach of airlocks, bulkheads, hull, or superstructure which may cause a depressurisation event.
*Article Zero Seven: The intentional sabotage of cryogenic lifepods, escape pods, or other non-combatant craft.
*Article Zero Eight: The intentional hampering or deception of humanitarian relief efforts in the event of interplanetary or interstellar crises, or in the event of goodwill salvage of combatants post-conflict.
*Article Zero Nine: The intentional sabotage or hampering of import/export craft without justification or probable cause.
*Article Ten: The intentional abandonment of a vessel without first dire emergency or lack of other options.
*Article Eleven: The intentional activation of space-based drift ordnance or mine fields without prior authorisation.
*Article Twelve: The intentional activation of space-based drift ordnance or mine fields without probable cause.
*Article Thirteen: The intentional placement of space-based drift ordnance or mine fields along a known civilian trade route or travel lane.
*Article Fourteen: The intentional sabotage or targeting of an unarmed medical vessel.
*Article Fifteen: The intentional sabotage or targeting of a vessel that has surrendered.
*Article Sixteen: The intentional engagement of actions which can be defined as, or are found to be conducive to, piracy.
*Article Seventeen: Associating with a vessel guilty of actions which can be defined as, or are found to be conducive to, piracy.
*Article Eighteen: Intentionally continuing active hostilities with an enemy after an SOS call or surrender.
*Article Nineteen: The intentional bombardment of a planet from orbit with intent to destroy civilian infrastructure.
*Article Twenty: The intentional ramming of another vessel during or outside of combat.
*Article Twenty One: The intentional ramming of a planet with a vessel.
*Article Twenty Two: The intentional sabotage of ship AI, artificial servicepersons, or personnel in any way shape or form.
*Article Twenty Three: The intentional falsification of ship records or supplemental materials to said records.
The UEG Charter on Active Space Travel specifies the same rules, though omits references to combat related scenarios. Though an additional law is present in their stead that specifies that ‘No civilian vessel may carry ordnance beyond what is necessary for the defence of one’s own ship and crew’.
The full law goes into detail on definitions of terms, legal precedent, notable violations of the statutes of the law, and consequences for those found guilty of violations.
Most notably, then-Lieutenant Preston J Cole, during the onset of the battle between his vessel and the Insurrectionist-controlled Calisto, violated this law.
Cole signalled the unconditional surrender of the UNSC Las Vegas to the Insurrectionist-controlled Calisto. and requested immediate aid for the wounded. As Calisto docked with Las Vegas, the insurgents offered to evacuate the injured to Lawrence Space Station if the crew of Las Vegas offered no resistance; Cole accepted. However, he had earlier ordered the crewmen to remove the ship's last Ares missile from its silo and transport it to the same cargo bay that the Calisto was to dock with. Cole had the missile fired directly into the enemy vessel, crippling Calisto and forcing her surrender.
This is a violation, specifically of Article Zero Six, Article Zero Eight, and Article Eighteen, with a technical violation of Article Ten. In order to avoid setting a precedent on rewarding such breaches, but also in order to not dissuade potential on-the-spot thinking such as this in the future, the UNSC Security Council votes to neither court-martial nor praise Preston Cole for his actions.
The full law is recorded below, including all legal definitions, precedent, prior incidents, and consequences.
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