1952 Arrest Convention
The 1952 Arrest Convention is a 1952 multilateral treaty whereby states agree to rules on the arrest of ships.
By the Convention, states agree to the following rule: a state agrees to allow a foreign jurisdiction to arrest a ship of its nationality that is present in the foreign jurisdiction's port. The arrest can be made only after a warrant of arrest is issued in the domestic jurisdiction of the port state. The rules of the Convention apply only if both the state of nationality and the state performing the arrest are state parties to the Convention.
The Convention was concluded and signed on 10 May 1952 in Brussels, Belgium; it entered into force on 24 February 1956. It has been signed by 19 states and is in force in 71 jurisdictions. Spain, an original signatory of the Convention, denounced it in 2011. The depositary of the Convention is the government of Belgium.