RIGHT OF SEARCH
right of search.Int’l law. The right to stop, visit, and examine vessels on the high seas to
discover whether they or the goods they carry are liable to capture; esp., a belligerent state’s right
to stop any merchant vessel of a neutral state on the high seas and to search as reasonably
necessary to determine whether the ship has become liable to capture under the international law
of naval warfare. • This right carries with it no right to destroy without full examination, unless
those on a given vessel actively resist. — Also termed right of visit; right of visit and search; right
of visitation; right of visitation and search. See VISIT. [Blacks Law 8th]