Law of the Sea

Background

 Initially navigation on the high seas was open to everybody but in the 15 th and 16th C ( the
periods of great maritime discovery by European navigators) claims were laid by the
powerful maritime states to the exercise of sovereignty over specific portions of the open
sea. e.g. Portugal claimed sovereignty over the whole of the Indian Ocean and a very
great proportion of the Atlantic. Spain arrogated rights to herself over the Pacific and the
Gulf of Mexico. Britain laid claim to the Narrow Seas and the North Sea.
 Grotious was one of the 1st strenuously to attach these extensive claims to sovereignty. He
objected to all these claims.
 In opposition to the principle of MARITIME SOVEREIGNTY, the principle of the
FREEDOM OF THE HIGH SEAS began to develop. The freedom of open sea was thus
seen to correspond to the general interests of all states.
 Maritime belt ( now territorial sea): The rights which came to be exercised by maritime
states over a strip of water immediately adjoining to their coastlines, being such as was
considered necessary to the safety of the state concerned or which that state had power to
dominate. Sovereignty over this part was already established in 18 th C.
 Cannon Shot rule: in 1702 by Bynkershoek. The rule that the littoral state could dominate
only such width of coastal waters as lay within the range of cannon shot from shore
batteries.
 In 19th C, the three-mile limit received widespread recognition by the jurists, as well as by
the courts, and obtained adoption in the practice of important maritime states. This carried
out in 20th C too ( Britain and US being its active supporters). But some states considered
it as extensive as 12 miles and even greater.
 Another more controversial right of the coastal state was that of the exercise of
jurisdiction over foreign vessels outside the limits of the maritime belt where there were
grave suspicion that such vessels were a source of imminent danger to the sovereignty and
security of the adjacent coastal state. The jurisdiction was permitted solely on the basis of,
and as a measure of self-protection. But it was all time debatable.
 Convention of the Protection of sub-marine telegraph cables of 1884 and the General Act
of Brussels of 1890 for the repression of the African Slave trade.
Introduction

 Law of the Sea is a body of international law that concerns the principles and rules by
which public entities, especially states, interact in maritime matters, including
navigational rights, sea mineral rights, and coastal waters jurisdiction. It is the public law
counterpart to admiralty law, which concerns private maritime intercourse. The United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or "UNCLOS", concluded in 1982 and put
into force in 1994, is generally accepted as a codification of customary international law
of the sea.
 Disputes are resolved at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (or "ITLOS"), a
court in Hamburg. In 2017, ITLOS celebrated 20 years of existence, during which time it
had settled some 25 cases.
Territorial Sea

 Territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,
is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) from the
baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is
regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (military and
civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it, or transit passage for straits; this
sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and seabed below. Adjustment of these
boundaries is called, in international law, maritime delimitation.
 A state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) from its
baseline. If this would overlap with another state's territorial sea, the border is taken as the
median point between the states' baselines
 Conflicts have occurred whenever a coastal nation claims an entire gulf as its territorial
waters while other nations only recognize the more restrictive definitions of the UN
convention. Claims which draw baseline in excess of 24 nautical miles (two 12 nm limits)
are judged excessive by the U.S. Two conflicts occurred in the Gulf of Sidra where Libya
drew a line in excess of 230 nm and claimed the entire enclosed gulf as its territorial
waters.
 In the U.S. federal system, individual states exercise ownership (subject to federal law) up
to 3 nautical miles (9 nautical miles for Texas and Florida) from shore, while the federal
government exercises sole territorial jurisdiction further out
Contiguous zone

 The contiguous zone is a band of water extending farther from the outer edge of the
territorial sea to up to 24 nautical miles (44.4 km; 27.6 mi) from the baseline, within
which a state can exert limited control for the purpose of preventing or punishing
"infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within
its territory or territorial sea".
Exclusive economic zone

 An exclusive economic zone extends from the baseline to a maximum of 200 nautical
miles (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) , thus it includes the contiguous zone.[3] A coastal nation has
control of all economic resources within its exclusive economic zone, including fishing,
mining, oil exploration, and any pollution of those resources. However, it cannot prohibit
passage or loitering above, on, or under the surface of the sea that is in compliance with
the laws and regulations adopted by the coastal State in accordance with the provisions of
the UN Convention, within that portion of its exclusive economic zone beyond its
territorial sea.