There seems to be some confusion among members of the group
concerning the nature and extent of state sovereignty and
jurisdiction offshore. I hope the following comments will help to
clarify the situation.
Essentially, issues of maritime sovereignty and jurisdiction are
governed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS) which entered into force in November 1994. To date, 134
states plus the European Union have ratified or acceded to UNCLOS
(see
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/los94st.htm for a full list).
Technically, states which have not ratified the convention are not
bound by its provisions, but in reality it is now very difficult to
defend contrary practice, as much of the convention is now recognised
as customary international law.
Coastal states are entitled to claim sovereignty over a belt of
territorial sea up to twelve nautical miles (1 nautical mile = 1,852
metres) from their baselines. Normally the baseline is the low-water
line along the coast, although where the coastline is deeply indented
or fringed with islands, the state may construct a system of straight
baselines from the which the territorial sea and other maritime zones
are measured. Within the territorial sea state sovereignty is the
same as that over its land territory, with one important exception:
the state must allow the innocent passage of vessels from other
states.
The waters landward of straight baselines and closing lines across
the mouths of rivers and bays are defined as internal waters. No
right of innocent passage exists in internal waters, so sovereignty
is the same as that over land territory.
Beyond the territorial sea, coastal states have sovereign rights for
the purpose of exploring and exploiting the natural resources of the
continental shelf. Note the term "sovereign rights", which is quite
different from sovereignty. All coastal states have rights over the
resources of the continental shelf up to 200 nm from their baselines,
regardless of the geomorphology of the seabed. Where the continental
margin extends beyond 200 nm, states are entitled to claim rights
over the resources of the seabed up to either 350 nm or a line 100 nm
beyond the 2,500 m isobath; however, such claims are subject to
approval by the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf.
Coastal states are also entitled to claim an Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ) up to 200 nm from their baselines, in which they exercise
sovereign rights over the natural resources of both the seabed and
the water column above it. Within the EEZ the coastal state may
exercise jurisdiction over the establishment of artificial islands
and installations, marine scientific research, and the protection and
preservation of the marine environment - but this is a long way short
of full sovereignty.
To my mind, therefore, Bioko and the continental Equatorial Guinea
are not part of one continuous zone of sovereignty. Such a situation
would only occur if they were no more than 24 nm apart, or if there
was a chain of islands between them in which each island was less
than 24 nm from its neighbours. In such instances there would be an
unbroken zone of territorial sea between the two land masses, and you
could certainly argue that this is all part of the same sovereign
space - although, as noted above, sovereignty over the territorial
sea is not identical to that over land territory or internal waters.
If you accept the above argument, the only islands which would meet
Brendan's strict definition of an enclave would be those whose
territorial sea is totally surrounded by the territorial sea of
another state - and, as yet, I have been unable to think of any....
There are many more issues I might have touched on but I hope the
above covers the essentials. If you want to find out more about
maritime jurisdiction, the two most accessible primers I have come
across are J.R.V. Prescott's "The Maritime Political Boundaries of
the World" (Methuen, 1985) and E.D. Brown's "The International Law of
the Sea" (Dartmouth, 1994). The text of UNCLOS can be found on the
web at
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/unclos/closindx.htm and there are
numerous links to law of the sea-related sites from IBRU's web links
page at
http://www-ibru.dur.ac.uk/links.html.
Regards,
m a r t i n
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Martin Pratt
Research Officer
International Boundaries Research Unit
Mountjoy Research Centre, Suite 3P
University of Durham
Durham DH1 3UR
United Kingdom
+44 (0)191 374 7704 (direct line)
+44 (0)191 374 7702 (fax)
m.a.pratt@... (email)
http://www-ibru.dur.ac.uk (World Wide Web)
==================================