08/04/2026
On March 31, 2026, the Department of International Law at the Faculty of Law, Charles University, in cooperation with the Czech Society for International Law and the student association ELSA hosted a lecture by Prof. Rainer Hofmann from the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main on the topic “The Russian Shadow Fleet and the Law of the Sea.”
In his lecture, Prof. Hofmann focused on the EU’s fight against the so-called Russian shadow fleet, i.e., ships transporting Russian oil and gas under the flags of other states. He explained that the Russian Federation’s ability to finance its aggression against Ukraine depends significantly on these exports, which is why the European Union is attempting to curb these activities through various tools, such as price caps.
Another tool was the introduction of a rule prohibiting ships without insurance from entering EU ports. However, this approach did not bring the expected results, mainly due to the limits of current maritime law, as set out in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention does not establish a general obligation to carry insurance or a strict liability system, and at the same time protects the right of innocent passage, which significantly limits states’ ability to take action against these ships.
The lecture also included a discussion on the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, specifically whether it constitutes a blockade in the legal sense and what legal consequences it may have. Also discussed were the issues of the exclusive economic zone and the legitimacy of fleet vessels as military targets in the event they are used, for example, to pilot drones.
