UNCLOS defines various maritime boundaries. For example, a reference line is defined as the line from which the limits seaward of a State`s territorial sea and certain other sovereign maritime areas are measured. After the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a marine baseline follows the low-water mark of a coastal State (see figure 9.2). The following methods are proposed for measuring a baseline: Due to advantageous tax systems and relatively lax ownership, inspection and crewing requirements, “flags of convenience” or “open registers” attracted about half of the world`s tonnage (see table 6). Open registries include Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Honduras, Lebanon, Liberia, Malta, Mauritius, Oman, Panama, Saint Vincent and Vanuatu. Open registries are the flags of choice for low-cost ship operations, but in some cases they have the disadvantage of a bad safety record. Although UNCLOS was established under the auspices of the United Nations, the Organization does not play a direct operational role in its implementation. However, a specialized agency of the United Nations, the International Maritime Organization, plays a role in monitoring and implementing certain provisions of the Convention, together with the International Intergovernmental Whaling Commission and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), established by the Convention to organize all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area beyond territorial boundaries. regulate and control. Im frühen 20.
In the nineteenth century, some nations expressed a desire to expand national maritime claims, namely the exploitation of mineral resources, the protection of fish stocks and the application of pollution controls. To this end, the League of Nations convened a conference in The Hague in 1930, but no agreement was reached. [11] In the mid-20th century, technological improvements in fishing and oil exploration expanded the nautical domain, where countries could detect and exploit natural resources. [12] This prompted U.S. President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to extend U.S. jurisdiction to all natural resources on his continental shelf, far beyond the country`s territorial waters. Truman`s proclamation cited the customary international principle of a nation`s right to protect its natural resources.
[13] Other nations soon followed: between 1946 and 1950, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador extended their rights to a distance of 200 nautical miles (370 km) to cover their fishing grounds in the Humboldt Current. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international agreement. It was formally formulated at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which took place between 1973 and 1982. In general, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines the rights and obligations of nations with respect to their use of the world`s oceans. It establishes guidelines for business, the environment and the management of marine natural resources. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea entered into force in 1994. As of June 2016, 167 countries and the European Union (EU) had acceded to the Convention. The Convention also codified the freedom of the sea and explicitly provided that the oceans are open to all States, with no State being able to subjugate part of its sovereignty. Therefore, States Parties cannot unilaterally extend their sovereignty beyond their EEZ, the 200 nautical miles during which that State has exclusive rights over fisheries, minerals and the seabed. “Peaceful passage” is allowed through territorial waters and the EEZ, including military vessels, as long as they do not harm the country or violate its laws. [17] Article 61 requires all coastal states to ensure that the conservation of the living resources of their EEZ is not compromised by overexploitation and to address the conservation or restoration of populations of species above levels where their reproduction could be seriously threatened.
UNCLOS requires that State action to combat pollution include measures to protect habitats and ecosystems, but does not explicitly call for cooperation or ecosystem-based management of marine resources in this regard. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea therefore subjects large marine ecosystems, typically covering two or more jurisdictions, to potentially conflicting management approaches and enforcement standards. The protection of marine habitats is ensured by two important international treaties – the 1975 Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, in particular as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity – as well as several regional marine protocols and other regional agreements. The protection of marine ecosystems is much less developed in international law, probably largely because ecosystem science and management are themselves relatively new and underdeveloped fields. It could also explain what some legal scholars consider to be an inconsistent approach to ecosystem protection in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In places where the coastline is deeply incised and incised, or where there is an island border along the coast nearby, the method of straight baselines connecting suitable points may be used to draw the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. Where the direct reference method referred to in paragraph 1 is applicable, the economic interests of the region concerned, the existence and importance of which are clearly demonstrated by prolonged application, may be taken into account in determining certain reference values. As an increasing number of nations began to expand their naval presence around the world, conflicting claims on the high seas piled up. This has led maritime States to moderate their attitude and limit the extent of their jurisdiction over the sea from land. This was supported by the compromise position of the Dutch legal theorist Cornelius Bynkershoek, who in De dominio maris (1702) established the principle that naval supremacy was limited to the distance within which guns could effectively protect it. States also have rights over the seabed of the continental shelf. The continental shelf of a State is defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the natural extension of its land area to the outer limit of the continental margin or 200 nautical miles (approximately 370 km) from the baseline of the coastal State, whichever is higher.
As a result, the continental shelf of a State may exceed 200 nautical miles from its baseline until the end of the natural extension. However, it should never be 350 nm (about 650 km) from the baseline. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea grants all coastal States the right to harvest (or grant the right to others) mineral and non-living materials from the subsoil of their continental shelf, to the exclusion of all other rights. The practice of allocating EEZs to nations and giving them control of maritime affairs across territorial boundaries was not realized until the end of the 20th century. In addition to maritime boundary provisions, UNCLOS sets out general obligations to protect the marine environment and freedom of scientific research on the high seas. Straight baselines shall not be drawn to and from low water levels unless lighthouses or similar structures have been permanently erected above sea level, or unless the drawing of baselines to and from such elevations has gained general international recognition. The lack of clarity as to where the power to enforce ecosystem protection is atypical of UNCLOS, which also shows a major concern about the clarity of jurisprudence regarding the balance between competing interests in international shipping and the environmental concerns of coastal States. In general, UNCLOS limits the power of States to enforce national and international environmental regulations when those powers conflict with other principles established in different jurisdictions for different categories of maritime space. For example, the jurisdiction of the coastal State to enforce national laws is subordinated to the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea; and on the high seas, only the flag State of an offending ship has the authority to enforce international environmental rules in accordance with the principle of freedom of navigation.