Compliance with Legislative Requirements
Compliance with Legislative Requirements
Classification of Sea
Definitions given in United Nations convention on law of the sea (UNCLOS) :
Entry in force 16-11-1996.
Base line : Normal baseline for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea is the low-water line along the coast.
Territorial sea : Maximum 12 nautical miles from baselines.
- The sovereignty of a coastal State extends over the territorial sea as well as to its bed and subsoil and the air space above it, beyond its land territory and internal waters and, in the case of an archipelagic State, its archipelagic waters.
- Ships of all States, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea.
Contiguous zone : Maximum 24 nautical miles from the baselines.
Coastal State may exercise control in this zone necessary to :
- Prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea.
- Punish infringement of the above laws and regulations committed within its territory or territorial sea.
Archipelagic State means a State constituted wholly by one or more archipelagos and may include other islands.
Archipelago means a group of islands, interconnecting waters and other natural features which are so closely interrelated that such islands, waters and other natural features form an intrinsic geographical, economic and political entity, or which historically have been regarded as such.
Exclusive economic zone : Maximum 200 nautical miles from the baselines. The coastal State has sovereign rights in this zone for :
- Exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil.
- Production of energy from the water, currents and winds.
- Construction, operation, establishment and use of artificial islands, installations and structures.
- Marine scientific research.
- Protection and preservation of the marine environment.
- Determining the allowable catch of the living resources and its optimum utilization.
Continental shelf of a coastal State comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, maximum 350 miles.
- The coastal State has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting its natural resources. consisting of mineral and other non-living resources of the seabed and subsoil together with living organisms belonging to sedentary species, that is to say, organisms which, at the harvestable stage, either are immobile on or under the seabed or are unable to move except in constant physical contact with the seabed or the subsoil.
- All States are entitled to lay submarine cables and pipelines on the continental shelf subject to the rights of the coastal State to take reasonable measures for the exploration of the continental shelf, the exploitation of its natural resources and the prevention, reduction and control of pollution from pipelines.
- The coastal State shall have the exclusive right to authorize and regulate drilling on the continental shelf for all purposes.
The following media explains about the Archipelagic Waters and Territorial Waters:
[Video]
The following media explains about the Contiguous zone, Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf:
[Video]
The following media explains about the Relationship between "Conventions and Interpretation" and "Uniform law and Conflict of Law rules":
[Video]
