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States do not possess. This is the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), where a coastal State has a mixture of sovereign rights and jurisdiction. The EEZ is a zone lying immediately beyond the territorial sea, extending up to 200 miles from the baseline. It thus overlaps to some degree with both the contiguous zone and the continental shelf, a point explored further below. Within the EEZ the coastal State has
Introduction With the possible exception of one or two mid-ocean island States, the maritime zones that States may claim off their coasts (territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ and continental shelf) overlap, to a greater or lesser extent, with the maritime zones of one or more neighbouring States. It is common to characterise such neighbouring States as being either
The law of the sea is an up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of this branch of public international law. It begins by tracing the historical origins of the law of the sea and explaining its sources, notably the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This is followed by chapters examining the various maritime zones into which the sea is legally divided, namely internal waters, the territorial sea, archipelagic waters, the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the exclusive economic zone, the high seas and the International Seabed Area. In each case the legal nature of the zone and its physical dimensions are analysed. Separate chapters deal with the baselines from which the breadths of most maritime zones are delineated and the law governing the delimitation of boundaries between overlapping maritime zones. Later chapters discuss how international law regulates the safety of navigation, fisheries and scientific research, and provides for protection of the marine environment from pollution and biodiversity loss. The penultimate chapter addresses the question of landlocked States and the sea. The final chapter outlines the various ways in which maritime disputes may be settled. Throughout the book detailed reference is made not only to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but also to other relevant instruments, the burgeoning case law of international courts and tribunals, and the academic literature.
existed to prevent overfishing in the face of the increasing pressure on stocks that resulted from ever more intensive methods of fishing. This first approach was crystallised and refined in proposals for an EEZ. A second approach was that put forward by the USA, initially together with Canada, based on the migratory characteristics of different species. This proposal categorised fish into sedentary
, establishing the rights of the coastal State over what is thenceforth ‘its’ continental shelf, so that earlier actions by the other claimant to the area did not at the time violate the rights of the coastal State. 14 While the doctrine of the continental shelf has not itself weakened, a certain amount of duplication and potential confusion arose with the emergence of the concept of the 200-mile EEZ at UNCLOS III
were inspired by two principal factors. First, those States felt that they would be unable to benefit fully from the right to exploit the resources off their coasts that the introduction of the 200-mile EEZ would give them unless they had control over the research in those waters that might have application to resource exploitation. Second, there was a suspicion among at least some developing States that
not automatically ascribed to the coastal State. Rather, a State must assert its right to a contiguous zone, 1 although there are no publicity requirements in that regard (cf. UNCLOS arts 16, 75 and 84 regarding the territorial sea, EEZ and continental shelf respectively). In the contiguous zone, States have limited powers for the prevention and punishment of breaches of customs, fiscal, sanitary
particular in respect of the areas of imports, health, and migration. The continental shelf (Part VI UNCLOS) shall not exceed 350 nautical miles from the baseline. The coastal state has exclusive jurisdiction to explore and exploit the natural resources in the seabed of the continental shelf. The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (Part V UNCLOS) shall not
neighbouring States prevented the generation of maritime zones of any considerable size, or because their EEZs were poor in natural resources 10 ), combined to form a group comprising fifty-five States (about a third of the total Conference membership). Although the members of this group were very diverse politically, economically and geographically (including both developed and developing States, and
with which Grotius’s historical claims could be dismantled, referring to Grotius’s examples of the Roman diverticula and the prohibition against preventing someone from fishing outside one’s house (Ziskind, 1973 : 547; Welwood, 2004 : 68). The United States in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) remains a piscine empire today, keeping strict controls on foreign fishing, with its EEZ made