PIL Discussion Group: From the Corfu Channel case to Hormuz (1946–2026): Passage Rights, Tolls and Naval Mines in Straits Used for International Navigation

Eighty years ago, on 22 October 1946, two British warships struck naval mines while navigating through Albanian territorial waters in the Corfu Channel, a narrow strait between Albania and the Greek island of Corfu. The incident gave rise to the first contentious case before the newly established International Court of Justice, raising fundamental questions of international law, including the right of passage through international straits, the duty to warn of the presence of naval mines, and the sovereignty of coastal States.

Eighty years later, in 2026, the legal regime governing straits used for international navigation has once again become headline news. Iran's closure and restrictions on navigation through the Strait of Hormuz following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, its demands for passage tolls, attacks on commercial shipping by the Houthis in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and Türkiye's restrictions on the passage of warships through the Turkish Straits following Russia's invasion of Ukraine have brought renewed attention to the legal rules governing these strategically important waterways.

This lecture will trace the evolution of the international legal regime governing straits over the past 80 years, examining the rights of passage, the powers and obligations of coastal States, including the issue of passage tolls, and the international law of naval mines.

Nilufer Oral is Director of the Centre of International Law at the National University of Singapore and is a member of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) where she served as Co- chairperson of the 74th session of the Commission,  and Co-chair of the ILC Study Group on sea-level rise in relation to international law.  She  is a member of The Hague Academy of International Law Curatorium and an Associate member of the Institut de Droit International. She was a legal advisor and  climate change negotiator for Turkish MFA (2009-2016). She is a member of the COP 31 Presidency Committee of Experts;  and a member of the Committee of Legal Experts of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS). She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Law of the Sea Institute at Berkeley Law, Senior Fellow of the National University of Singapore Law School, and Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne Law School. She  is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the World Commission on Environmental Law of the IUCN.

She has appeared before the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for advisory proceedings and contentious cases.

She is the series editor for the International Straits of the World publications (Brill); member of the editorial board of different publications including She has published numerous articles and edited several books, and has spoken at numerous international conferences.

Education: University of California Berkeley, BA; Santa Clara Law, JD; DEA (LLM) Paris I (Sorbonne); George Washington University Law School, SJD