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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• Freedom of navigation (Can ships go anywhere? g ( p g y

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.

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.

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).

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 t l h lf i th t i ll i t tContinental shelf is the most economically important 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.Th lt UN b d ti ti f 1973 th h• The result UN-based negotiations from 1973 through 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 nm): Police power• Contiguous Zone (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.

• 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

f f th t d/

The Right of Innocent Passage is a broad body of international law that

surface of another country; and/or• 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 li dgeneralized

(“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. Ship owners often register g p gtheir vessels in such countries (e.g. Liberia and panama) and fly their flags, as a matter of convenience.