MEDVEDYEV AND OTHERS v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 29 authorisation to intercept it. The ship’s nationality being known in fact as early as 7 June 2002, the French embassy requested Cambodia’s consent to the French authorities’ intervention; that agreement was given in a diplomatic note of 7 June 2002 and the Ministry of Defence in Paris was immediately informed. Thus, by 7 June 2002 at the latest the Winner had been precisely identified as a ship flying the Cambodian flag, as expressly stated in the diplomatic note sent by the Cambodian authorities. As to the frigate Lieutenant de vaisseau Le Hénaff, it had been at anchor in Brest harbour, and had already been assigned another mission off the African coast when, instead, it was specially instructed to set sail immediately to intercept the Winner. In order to carry out this clearly defined mission it took on board a French navy special forces team specialised in boarding vessels at sea, as well as three experts from the OCRTIS. 89. In view of these elements, the Government cannot reasonably argue that the situation provided for in Article 110 of the Montego Bay Convention, concerning the possibility for a warship to board a ship if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that that ship is without nationality (see paragraph 28 above), applies to the present case. The circumstances of the case do not support such an assertion. Moreover, the judgment of the Investigation Division of the Rennes Court of Appeal states quite plainly that the merchant ship spotted on 13 June 2002 at 6 a.m. was identified as the Winner (see paragraph 22 above). 90. Concerning the relevant French law, apart from the fact that its main purpose was to transpose the international treaties, and in particular the Vienna Convention, into domestic law, it cannot override the treaties concerned, or the principle of the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag State. Thus, as Cambodia was not a party to the conventions transposed into domestic law, and as the Winner was not flying the French flag and none of its crew members were French nationals – even assuming that the nationality of the crew members could be pleaded as an alternative to the principle of the flag State –, there were no grounds for French law to be applied. 91. The Court further notes that French law has since been amended: the reference limiting its scope to States Parties to the Vienna Convention has been deleted – in spite of the position of the Court of Cassation in the Medvedyev case – and the content of the coercion measures has been specified (see paragraphs 34-37 above). 92. Nor could it be argued that French law satisfied the general principle of legal certainty, as it failed to meet the requisite conditions of foreseeability and accessibility: it is unreasonable to contend that the crew of a ship on the high seas flying the Cambodian flag could have foreseen – even with appropriate advice – that they might fall under French jurisdiction in the circumstances of the case. Furthermore, although the purpose of the Montego Bay Convention was, inter alia, to codify or consolidate the