What is the current state of the law regarding jurisdiction of a foreign vessel operating on the high seas?

There is much discussion in the briefs and the district court opinion regarding objective territorial, protective and universal jurisdiction. These are each principles of international law that provide a basis for one nation to apply its law extraterritorially. United States v. Vasquez-Velasco, 15 F.3d 833, 840 (9th Cir.1994). Under appropriate circumstances, these principles would allow the United States to exercise jurisdiction over another nation's vessel operating on the high seas. However, international law "restrictions on the right to assert jurisdiction over foreign vessels on the high seas and the concomitant exceptions have no applicability in connection with stateless vessels." Marino-Garcia, 679 F.2d at 1382. Such vessels are "international pariahs." Id. By attempting to shrug the yoke of any nation's authority, they subject themselves to the jurisdiction of all nations "solely as a consequence of the vessel's status as stateless." Id. at 1383 (emphasis in original).