Maritime Disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean - Roudi Baroudi

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Cagan

      Sasha Toperich

      Acknowledgements

      I would like to express gratitude to the Transatlantic Leadership Network, especially Dr. Sasha Toperich and Ms. Debra Cagan and colleagues for their valuable support in realization of this project. I also wish to express my special thanks to Jonathan Roberts for his tireless work in coordinating the editing of this publication.

      I am grateful to Peggy Irvine and Peter Lindeman for their commitment to the publishing details of this book and to my office colleagues, particularly Rachel, Fadi, Nelly and Mary Ann.

      The scientific part of the book would not be possible without the outstanding support of Robert van de Poll, Global Director Law of the Sea at Fugro and creator of CARIS LOTS, the leading Law of the Sea and maritime boundary software used by the United Nations and by international courts and tribunals. Thanks to all for their indispensable contributions and assistance.

      The views expressed are the authors’ alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any government or institution.

      Data Sources, Definitions, Abbreviations, and Disclaimer

      Data Sources

      In order to generate and propose valid, neutral, and equitable maritime boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean—especially given the high proportion of unresolved and/or disputed maritime frontiers among the region’s various coastal states – this book draws on an extensive number of highly accurate, present-day digital data sets and other reliable sources of information. These sources are routinely accepted by courts and tribunals charged with interpreting international law, as well as by arbitration panels and other entities tasked with dispute resolution. With this near-universal acceptance in mind, the author has entered into various consultancy contracts with world-renowned providers of imagery and other data, contracts which permit the release of this information for the purpose of disseminating knowledge vital for all for all stakeholders in the Mediterranean region, or indeed, for anyone interested in the peaceful resolution of international disputes.

      All of the data involved has been processed and refined by Fugro, the world’s leading provider of geo-data and geo-intelligence, using CARIS LOTS, a marine-based Law of the Sea software which is likewise widely accepted in international legal circles. In order to ensure the highest standards of accuracy, the author has employed the services of Fugro and its Director for Global Law of the Sea Activities, Robert Van De Poll, who actually created CARIS LOTS and has used the same kinds of datasets to conduct 1,500-plus similar studies for Law of the Sea (LOS) projects involving some 142 countries around the world.

      Accordingly, the author has entered into several consultancy contracts with Fugro for the latter to provide precise calculations based on the latest available data and technology. Fugro, in turn, has license agreements with the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office’s ADMIRALTY Maritime Data Solutions and with German-based SevenCs to integrate electronic navigation chart (ENC) data into its software. SevenCs provides the Navionics global ENC database—a seamless cartographic database covering the globe and the largest privately owned data store of its kind.

      While the data sources vary by area, they mostly come from local hydrographic offices and official government offices such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the British Admiralty, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and the United States Geological Survey. Navionics also has entered into a licensing agreement with Airbus Defense and Space for imagery services.

      1. Baseline

      Generally speaking, the normal baseline is the low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal state. Special rules for determining the baseline apply in a variety of circumstances, such as with bays, ports, mouths of rivers, deeply indented coastlines, fringing reefs, and roadsteads. Consistent with these rules, the U.S. baselines are the average of the lower low tides as depicted on the largest-scale NOAA nautical charts. The U.S. normal baselines are ambulatory and subject to changes as the coastline accretes and erodes.

      2. Internal Waters

      Internal waters are the waters on the landward side of the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. Each coastal state has full sovereignty over its internal waters as if they were part of its land territory. The right of innocent passage does not apply in internal waters. Examples of internal waters include bays, rivers, and even lakes that are connected to the sea.

      3. Territorial Sea

      Each coastal state may claim a territorial sea that extends seaward up to 12 nautical miles (nm) from its baselines. The coastal state exercises sovereignty over its territorial sea, the airspace above it, and the seabed and subsoil beneath it. Foreign-flag ships enjoy the right of innocent passage while transiting the territorial sea subject to laws and regulations adopted by the coastal state that are in conformity with the Law of the Sea Convention and other rules of international law relating to such passage.

      4. Contiguous Zone

      Each coastal state may claim a contiguous zone adjacent to and beyond its territorial sea that extends seaward up to 24 nm from its baselines. In its contiguous zone, a coastal state may exercise the control necessary to prevent the infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea, and punish infringement of those laws and regulations committed within its territory or territorial sea. Additionally, in order to control trafficking in archaeological and historical objects found at sea, a coastal state may presume that their removal from the seabed of the contiguous zone without its consent is unlawful.

      5. Exclusive Economic Zone

      Each coastal state may claim an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) beyond and adjacent to its territorial sea that extends seaward up to 200 nm from its baselines (or out to a maritime boundary with another coastal state). Within its EEZ, a coastal state has: (a) sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing natural resources, whether living or nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and the superjacent waters and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents, and winds; (b) jurisdiction as provided for in international law with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations, and structures, marine scientific research, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment; and (c) other rights and duties provided for under international law.

      6. Continental Shelf

      Each coastal state has a continental shelf that is comprised of 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, or to a distance of 200 nm from its baselines where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance (or out to a maritime boundary with another coastal state). Wherever the outer edge of a coastal state’s continental margin extends beyond 200 nm from its baselines, it may establish the outer limit of its continental shelf in accordance with Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The portion of a coastal state’s continental shelf that lies beyond the 200 nm limit is often called the extended continental shelf.

      7. High Seas

      The high seas are comprised of all parts of the sea that are not included in the Exclusive Economic Zone, the territorial sea or the internal waters of a state, or in the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic state.

      8. Waters Forming International Straits

      International straits are those areas of overlapping 12 nautical mile territorial seas that connect one area of the high seas or EEZ to another area of the high seas or EEZ and are used for international navigation. Part III of the Law of the Sea Convention (articles 34-45) describes the regime for transit passage through such straits as well as the rights and jurisdiction of the states bordering it. Transit passage is the right of a ship or aircraft to transit, pass, or navigate through an international

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