Subject: territorial sea enclaves
Date: Mar 14, 2001 @ 09:09
Author: Martin Pratt ("Martin Pratt" <m.a.pratt@...>)
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Although the maritime areas pertaining to St Pierre & Miquelon and the
Channel Islands are both surrounded by the maritime zones of another state,
neither's territorial sea is completely surrounded by another state's
territorial sea. Whether this makes them true enclaves clearly depends on
your definition of the term....

Since islands are generally entitled to territorial sea, continental shelf
and EEZ in the same way as mainland territory, it would actually need a
pretty remarkable set of geographical and/or legal circumstances to create a
situation in which an area of territorial sea belonging to one country lies
wholly within that of another. Curiously, this very thing may happen on
Friday afternoon, when the International Court of Justice will finally
announce its decision in the case between Qatar and Bahrain concerning
sovereignty over the Hawar Islands and the maritime boundary between the two
countries. If, as many commentators believe likely, the islands are awarded
to Bahrain but are only given a three nautical mile territorial sea (and no
continental shelf or EEZ) the territorial sea of the Hawar group would - at
least in theory - be totally surrounded by the territorial sea of Qatar.

m a r t i n