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.
