Peter: Straits used for international navigation get a whole section of
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to themselves (see
Part III of the Convention at
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/unclos/closindx.htm). Essentially, however,
the special regime for straits relates to issues of passage rather than
the extent of zones of sovereignty or jurisdiction. Thus the entire
Strait of Gibraltar is territorial sea (in theory delimited by median
lines pending boundary agreements between the littoral states) but
because it is a strait used for international navigation, the littoral
states are not entitled to prevent transit passage by ships from other
states under any circumstances.
With regard to pockets of high seas surrounded by the territorial sea of
a single country, there is one in the western Aegean to the south of
Euboea. However, it only exists because Greece only claims a 6 nautical
mile territorial sea; if it ever claims a 12 nm territorial sea, the
'enclave' would disappear. Whether others would appear elsewhere in the
Aegean as a result would probably depend on the outcome of the
Greek-Turkish war that would likely follow such an extension....
m a r t i n
>From: "Peter Smaardijk" <smaardijk@...>
>Reply-To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Re: global clave census in progress
>Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 06:49:33 -0000
>
>In this story the figure 12 nautical miles is constantly mentioned,
>but I think it has to be mentioned too that this is not just 12 nm
>from the coast line; it is from the base line, and this base line
>could be different (cutting off of bays, river mouths, etc.) Also the
>claimed status of archipelagic country plays a role here, too. I
>don't know whether there are, anywhere in the world, enclaved bits of
>high sea within a single entity of territorial waters (i.e. belonging
>to one country), but they seem very unlikely to me. On the other
>hand, these things _can_ happen with regards to the 200 nm limit,
>with EEZ's. One example is the so-called "peanut hole" in the Sea of
>Okhotsk.
>
>And I don't know whether Ceuta and mainland Spain are linked through
>Spanish territorial waters, just because they are less than 24 nm
>apart. This is the Gibraltar strait, after all, and because it is a
>very important strait, there might be other rules applied here.
>Perhaps I'm seeing problems where there aren't any. Anyway, free
>passing of ships should be assured somehow (which is the case in
>terr. waters anyway, as I recall), but perhaps some special status is
>given to these important straits. There are definitely such
>regulations for the all-Turkish Bosporus and Dardanelles. Does anyone
>know anything more on this subject?