Professional Documents
Culture Documents
UNCLOS
UNCLOS
Chris Carleton
MARITIME ZONES
<2
4M
Bay closing lines
• River Closing Lines (UNCLOS Art 9)
Further Rules
Historic Bays (UNCLOS Art 10.6)
300M
24M
Low-Tide Elevations (Art 13)
• Naturally formed;
• Above water at low-tide but submerged at high tide;
• Can not be used as basepoint if >12M from mainland
or island.
Low-tide elevations
Straight Baselines (Art 7)
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Straight Estonia
Baseline
Rus
ias
Latvia
Denmark
Lithuania
Ru
Straight Baseline Detail
Australia
Bangladesh
TS limit
From
coastline
Straight
Baseline
(10 fathom)
0 50M
Bangladesh
Satellite imagery
Bangladesh
Satellite imagery
Chart – Satellite data comparison
+ +
Mauritania
Territorial TS limit
Sea Limit from normal
baseline
Mauritania
Straight
Baseline
Iran
Straight
Baseline
Black Sea Baselines
UKRAINE
MOLDOVA
UKRAINE
Crimean
Peninsula
ROMANIA
12M from
coastline
Straight
Baselines
BLACK SEA
Territorial Sea
Limit
Archipelagic Baselines
Vietnam
Philippines
Malaysia
Indonesia
New Guinea
E Timor
Australia
Calculation of 12M buffer
Envelope of arcs
12M
radiu
s
Selecting basepoints:12M
Select contributing base points
LTE
LTE
Basepoint
s Basepoints
a diu
r
M
12
Contributing basepoints: 200M
LTE
LTE
Basepoints
200M radius
Thames Estuary: Limits
Enviromnmental
and Fisheries
Legislation
Territorial
1M Sea Limit
Low Water 3M
Line
12M
LTEs
Not allowed
6M
Bay Closing
Line
Maritime Jurisdiction
• UNCLOS Article 3
• Maximum Breadth 12M
• Coastal State has sovereignty over the territorial sea
• All vessels enjoy the right of innocent passage
through the territorial sea, UNCLOS Article 17.
Contiguous Zone
• “Unclaimed” sea-bed;
• Developed for the benefit of mankind;
• Administered by the International Seabed Authority.
The Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries
The Jurisprudence
Eritrea/Yemen – 1999
Bahrain/Qatar – 2001
Nigeria/Cameroon - 2002
Yemen-Eritraea 1999 Arbitration
Yemen
Eritraea
Judgment
Median Line
Territorial Sea Limit
CONCLUSIONS