Download The Law of the Sea

4/13/2011
The Law of the Sea
How far offshore does a coastal State’s
sovereignty extend? And why does it matter?
• Police power (jurisdiction in matters of crime and
smuggling)
• National defense concerns
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(Can
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ships
p go
g anywhere?
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• Freedom of navigation
What about straits and marine bottlenecks?)
• Regulation of ocean dumping and pollution (sewage
outfalls, sludge dumping, ballast dumping)
• Accident investigations and fines
• Control and management of marine resources
(fisheries, natural gas, petroleum, seafloor mining)
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A nautical mile (nm) is a unit of length that
corresponds to one minute of arc along any line of
longitude.
Widely used in navigation because of its direct link to
the Earth’s shape and to the global system of latitude
and longitude.
Because Earth is not a perfect sphere, the length of a
nautical mile may vary slightly.
An internationally standardized unit measuring
6,076.115 feet ( 1.151 statute miles; 1,852 meters) has
been recognized as official by the United States since
July 1, 1959.
The Cod Wars
• Confrontations between
Britain and Iceland
during the 1950s and
1970s resulting from
Iceland’s unilateral
extension of its
sovereign waters.
• Ended traditional British
access to fishing areas.
• Royal navy sent warships
to protect fishing
vessels.
• In the photo, an Icelandic
coast guard vessel (right)
maneuvers to cut net
lines extending from a
British trawler (left).
Territorial Sea/Waters
• A long-standing concept in international law
that gives coastal States sovereignty over a
certain amount of the bordering ocean.
• Until the 1870s the traditional distance was 3
nautical miles ((nm)) – then the effective
range of coastal artillery (canon balls).
• With the advent of the rifled artillery shell,
seaward boundaries were extended as far as
12 nm.
• More recently, and due mainly to resource
issues, some countries went to a 200nm
limit.
Net Cutting During the Cod War
Continental Shelf is the relatively shallow
ocean-bottom plain that lies immediately offshore the
continents. It averages between 200-500 feet in depth,
and is separated from the “abyssal plain” (deep-ocean
bottom averaging about 15,000 feet in depth) by a
steep drop-off called the “continental slope.”
C ti
Continental
t l shelf
h lf is
i the
th mostt economically
i ll important
i
t t
part the ocean because:
• Fish tend to congregate there in greatest abundance
(due to food supply); and
• It is where most offshore drilling and mining occurs
(due to its relatively shallow waters).
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Generalized View of the Undersea Realm
The United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
• Defines the rights and responsibilities of countries in
their use of the oceans.
• Standardizes issues of offshore sovereignty, plus
access to and management of marine resources.
• The
Th result
lt UN-based
UN b
d negotiations
ti ti
ffrom 1973 through
th
h
1982.
• Came into force in 1994, after the 60th State (Guyana)
ratified the treaty.
• As of today, 161 countries have joined the
Convention
• The U.S. has signed, but not ratified the treaty.
“The Law of the Sea”
(U.N.C.L.O.S.)
Four Offshore Jurisdictional Zones
• Territorial Sea (0-12 nm): Total sovereignty
• Contiguous Zone (12-24
(12 24 nm): Police power
• Exclusive Economic Zone (0-200 nm):
Exclusive ownership and management of
marine resources
• High Seas/International Waters (200+ nm):
Open to ships of all States.
The Right of Innocent Passage is a broad
body of international law that
• permits the transit of ships flying the flag of one
country through the territorial waters of another;
and/or
• permits modes of surface transportation (e.g.,
trucks) registered in one country to transit the
surface
f
off another
th country;
t
and/or
d/
• permits civilian aircraft of one country to transit the
air space of another country . . .
• . . . provided that such passage is innocent –
meaning that it poses no threat to the peace, good
order or stability to the State whose sovereign space
is being transited.
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Exclusive Economic Zone
(deep blue)
Is this Dokdo or Takeshima?
Rockall
The various
zones are
measured from a
mean low tide
line that is
generalized
li d
(“smoothed’)
with respect to
prominent
coastal features.
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Offshore oil rig
in transit to drilling site
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Chinese Maritime Boundary Claims
Caribbean Maritime Boundaries
Russian deep-sea submersible ”plants the
flag” on the Arctic Ocean seafloor (8/3/2007)
Norway-Russia
Maritime Boundary Dispute
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Concerning the Guyana-Suriname
Maritime boundary dispute
Gulf of Fonseca
Maritime Boundary Dispute
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Bay of Piran Boundary Disputes
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Gulf beach clean-up after BP oil spill
Part of the Panama Canal
The Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Hormuz
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Strait of Bab el Mandeb
The Dardanelles and Bosporus
“Flag of Convenience” – a country that
allows ships to be operated with a
minimum of government interference or
regulation.
g
Ship
p owners often register
g
their vessels in such countries (e.g.
Liberia and panama) and fly their flags, as
a matter of convenience.
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