Choke Point: The Law of the Sea and the Strait of Hormuz Crisis

Sep 8, 2026 | FSU Center for Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law
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Explore the legal framework governing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical maritime choke points. This lecture will examine transit passage rights, naval blockades and interdiction, and the evolving legal issues surrounding Iranian mining operations and U.S. naval responses.

Drawing on his recent writing on the U.S.-Iran conflict, Professor Nevitt will examine the legal rules governing the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world's most critical maritime choke points. The talk covers transit passage rights under the law of the sea, the legality of naval blockades and interdiction, and how these doctrines are playing out amid recent Iranian mining operations and U.S. naval responses. A former Navy JAG and tactical jet aviator who has personally transited the Strait of Hormuz multiple times on aircraft carriers, Professor Nevitt will bring an operational lens to the legal framework, connecting doctrine to the realities facing naval forces in contested waters.