Territorial waters
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What are territorial waters?
In international law, territorial waters are the sea areas adjacent to a state's coast, over which the state has jurisdiction. These waters are distinct from the high seas, which are open to all nations, and internal waters like lakes.
The concept originated in the 17th century, with the width of territorial waters often debated. While there is no universal agreement on the breadth, every state can claim a minimum of 3 nautical miles. However, claims exceeding 12 nautical miles often face opposition.
Within its territorial waters, a coastal state possesses sovereignty over the sea, seabed, subsoil, and airspace. This sovereignty is limited only by the right of innocent passage for foreign merchant vessels, excluding submarines, aircraft, and fishing activities.
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How far do a country's territorial waters usually extend from its coast?
A country's territorial waters extend to a maximum of 12 nautical miles (22 km) from its coastline. These waters are under the sovereignty of the coastal state, but foreign merchant vessels have the right of innocent passage through them. This means they can pass through as long as it is not prejudicial to the coastal state. A state also has sovereign rights to explore and exploit natural resources in the adjacent continental shelf.
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Why are territorial waters important in international law?
Territorial waters, extending up to 12 nautical miles from a country's coast, are crucial in international law because they establish a coastal state's sovereignty over the adjacent sea, seabed, subsoil, and airspace. This control is subject only to the right of innocent passage for foreign merchant vessels.
These waters enable states to enforce customs, sanitary, fiscal, and immigration regulations, and to exploit natural resources. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea codifies these rights, balancing coastal state interests with international navigation.
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What rights does a country have over its territorial waters?
A country's sovereign territory extends to its recognized land boundaries, airspace, and territorial waters, typically up to 12 nautical miles from its coast. Within its territorial waters, a state possesses full sovereignty but must allow innocent passage, meaning that all shipping can pass through the territorial waters of states, provided that the passage is not prejudicial. This right does not extend to submerged submarines, aircraft, or fishing. Coastal states may also exercise criminal jurisdiction over foreign ships engaged in innocent passage under certain conditions.
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What is the difference between territorial waters and international waters?
Territorial waters are areas of the sea adjacent to a state's coast, over which the state has jurisdiction. International waters, also known as the high seas, are those waters not included in a state's exclusive economic zone, territorial sea, or internal waters, and are open to all states.
A stateās sovereignty extends to its territorial seas, but is subject to the right of innocent passage, which allows all shipping to pass through the territorial waters of states as long as the passage isn't prejudicial. All states have freedoms to navigate and fly over the high seas, lay submarine cables and pipelines, conduct scientific research, and fish.
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How are disputes about territorial waters settled between countries?
Territorial water disputes are settled through various methods under international law. Countries initially negotiate or use means they agree on, such as arbitration. If unsuccessful, they can refer the dispute to the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), or an arbitration tribunal for compulsory settlement.
The ICJ's decisions are binding and influential, possessing both contentious and advisory jurisdiction. Consent to the ICJ may be given via special agreement or through a convention that gives the court jurisdiction over matters relating to the dispute. The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) concept was introduced to settle disputes by awarding sovereign jurisdiction within boundary waters to coastal states.
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Territorial waters, in international law, that area of the sea immediately adjacent to the shores of a state and subject to the territorial jurisdiction of that state. Territorial waters are thus to be distinguished on the one hand from the high seas, which are common to all countries, and on the other from internal or inland waters, such as lakes wholly surrounded by the national territory or certain bays or estuaries.
Historically, the concept of territorial waters originated in the controversy over the status of the sea in the formative period of modern international law in the 17th century. Although the doctrine that the sea by its nature must be free to all was eventually upheld, most commentators did recognize that, as a practical matter, a coastal state needed to exercise some jurisdiction in the waters adjacent to its shores. Two different concepts developedāthat the area of jurisdiction should be limited to cannon-shot range, and that the area should be a much greater belt of uniform width adjacent to the coastāand in the late 18th century these concepts coalesced in a compromise view that proposed a fixed limit of 3 nautical miles (1 marine league, or 3.45 statute miles [5.5 km]). In 1793 the United States adopted three miles for neutrality purposes, but although many other maritime states during the 19th century came to recognize the same limit, it never won such universal acceptance as to become an undisputed rule of international law.
In the course of this historical development, it became settled that the belt of territorial waters, together with the seabed and subsoil beneath it and the airspace above, is under the sovereignty of the coastal state. This sovereignty is qualified only by a right of innocent passageāthat is, peaceful transit not prejudicial to the good order or security of the coastal stateāfor merchant vessels of other nations. The right of innocent passage does not apply to submerged submarines or to aircraft, nor does it include a right to fish.
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On the width of the belt there has developed no universal agreement except that every state is entitled to a minimum of three nautical miles. Claims in excess of 12 nautical miles (22 km) commonly meet widespread opposition from other states, though in the 1960s and ā70s a trend to a 12-nautical-mile limit was evident; among about 40 states taking this view were China, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Egypt, and the Soviet Union.
Distinct from territorial waters proper are zones in the adjacent high seas in which coastal states claim no territorial rights but assert limited jurisdiction for one or more special purposes. These contiguous zones of 6 to 12 nautical miles (11 to 22 km) beyond territorial waters are most commonly claimed for the enforcement of customs and sanitary regulations, but in some instances they may be established for fishery protection or for security. Also distinct from territorial waters are the claims made after 1945 by many states to the continental shelf off their shores, in or on which potentially valuable resources might exist. Such claims met with little objection from other states when confined to the shelf itself, without affecting the status as high seas of the waters above, but actions by some states, such as Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, that asserted jurisdiction over waters as well as shelf for as much as 200 nautical miles (370 km) offshore evoked wide protest as amounting to unacceptable extensions of territorial waters.
A United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea that was convened at Geneva in 1958 and attended by 86 nations developed a convention affirming the commonly accepted principles of the legal nature of the territorial sea and the right of innocent passage. This convention took effect in 1964 and by 1970 had been ratified by almost 40 states. A more comprehensive Law of the Sea treaty was signed by 117 nations in 1982. See also high seas.