A nation's
internal waters include waters on the landward side of the
baseline of a nation's
territorial waters, except in
archipelagic states. It includes waterways such as rivers and canals, and sometimes the water within small
bays. According to the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the coastal nation is free to set laws, regulate any use, and use any resource. Foreign vessels have no right of passage within internal waters, and this lack of right to
innocent passage is the key difference between internal waters and territorial waters. The "archipelagic waters" within the outermost islands of an
archipelagic states are treated as internal waters with the exception that innocent passage must be allowed, although the archipelagic state may designate certain sea lanes in these waters.