UNCLOS · 2:30pm Mar 31st, 2016
Ah, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. A little-known branch of law that is playing a part in some of the biggest political battles of modern times.
It's important enough that they have this sweet banner.
UNCLOS is relatively recent as international law goes, being created in 1982 to replace earlier agreements. As of now, there are about 30 countries which have not signed it. Notably, the USA hasn't signed. Remember that, it'll be important later.
So let's start with what UNCLOS does. Take a look at this graphic.
A country's Territorial Waters extend 12 nautical miles from its shores. It can do whatever it wants there and foreign vessels require permission to enter. There is an exception, known as innocent passage, in which a ship may travel though but must not engage in any activity to disturb the peace or break the law. A US aircraft carrier going through Iran's waters in the narrow Strait of Hormuz to enter the Arabian Gulf is an example.
A country can enforce its own laws out to 24 nautical miles, in the Territorial Waters and Contiguous Zone.
The Exclusive Economic Zone extends up to 200 nautical miles from shore. The EEZ is an area where that country has exclusive right to natural resources. Only that country is allowed to fish, drill for oil, or do other moneymaking activities.
The Continental Shelf is tricky. A country has sole mineral rights there, but not fishing rights. It extends to either 200 miles from shore or where the continental shelf drops off, whichever is greater. The zone is not to exceed more than 350 nautical miles from shore and is not to exceed 100 nautical miles past where the water depth reaches 2,500 meters.
In some cases, especially when a country has several offshore islands, it can claim an archipelagic baseline, which grants it all the waters within the island chain.
UNCLOS also gives landlocked countries the right of access to and from the sea, without taxation of traffic through transit states. It also establishes the International Seabed Authority to moderate what happens at the bottom of the ocean outside a country's waters.
As an aside, the International Seabed Authority is based in Kingston, Jamaica. Can you imagine some Jamaican guy pulling out a badge and being like, "I'm with the ISA, mon. My authority begins 200-350 nautical miles offshore." That's not how it would go. They probably don't have badges, and any country party to UNCLOS has a seat at ISA. But it's funny.
The part of UNCLOS dealing with the ISA is what the United States disagreed with. Some wording has been changed and the US is moving towards ratifying UNCLOS, but has not as of now. Again, this will be important later.
So what if two countries are close together? Then they split it down the middle. For example, the Strait of Hormuz is only 21 miles wide, so Iran and the UAE each get 10.5 miles. This gets more complicated when you're dealing with EEZ's and you're someplace like the South China Sea.
EEZ claims in the South China Sea.
Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, and China have overlapping claims. Most of the controversy arises based on who owns what small islands.
UNCLOS defines the following terms:
Low Tide Elevation: A reef, for example, that is underwater at high tide. Not entitled to any zones.
Rock: Above water at high tide, but unable to sustain human life. Entitled to Territorial Waters and Contiguous Zone.
Island: Large enough to sustain human life. Entitled to all zones, including EEZ.
With regard to the South China Sea, the EEZ is the important part. That's how you make your money and feed your people. Based on the graphic above, China is trying to claim everything inside the red line based on territory in the South China Sea. Problem is, a lot of that territory, if it even belongs to them, is just rocks and reefs.
You may have heard about China building artificial islands out of these places. According to UNCLOS, an artificial island doesn't count. They shouldn't have an EEZ around it. However, possession is nine tenths of the law. If China can establish a presence on the artificial islands, they can forcibly control the waters around them whether they have the rights or not.
So, the USA being the USA, they get involved to poke China. The US Navy does Freedom of Navigation cruises, sailing within 12 nautical miles of reefs because that's the letter of the law. While the United States generally follows UNCLOS even if they aren't a signatory, it does make the US look kind of hypocritical for not signing it.
Not that it matters a lot. UNCLOS just makes the laws. It doesn't have the authority to enforce them. That would be somebody else in the UN. However, most of the laws it has passed have become accepted as customary international practice.
Yeah, this being international law, there's a lot of controversy. Philippines has a complaint against China that's currently being debated at the UN. The UN recently granted Argentina an extension of its Continental Shelf out to the 350 nautical mile limit, which butts it up against the British Falkland Islands.
In all cases, the media seems to have a poor understanding of UNCLOS. I hope that now you know. And as they say, knowing is half the battle.
I love posts like this that enlighten users elsewhere. Having been part of the International Court of Justice in Model United Nations (thank goodness not the real UN), I've dealt with UNCLOS too, as I was an advocate for Colombia debating against Nicaragua over the maritime boundaries over some Caribbean cays. Quite a worthwhile experience, and it fueled my interest for political science and international law.
That is a spiffy banner. I feel ejumucated now.
Although surprisingly, I already mostly knew about how China has been trying to, say, augment the state of its islands in order to claim more resources. There's also the whole naming thing, a lot of countries are not happy with "South China Sea" 。
Also, it seems to me there are a lot of international treaties that the US hasn't signed.
I thought the other half was red and blue lasers...
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Like that landmine one. Which is funny when people try to use that against X president for not finally getting the USA involved in "STOPPING THE LANDMINE MADNESS OMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN."
Then you explain that yes, we do use landmines, and it keeps their favorite K-pop personalities safe from North Korea. And no president since the Korean war would ever sign a treaty like that.
The big USA might not always get it right internationally, but there's almost always some good thinking behind what we do or don't do.
Nice and simple.
That's what they all say....
I live in the Philippines, and I swear that territorial thing is always in the news. I also find it funny that in the spirit of 'nationalism' the Filipino media have dubbed the SCS as the 'West Philippine Sea'. Perhaps not surprisingly, it's caught on.
There is, in effect, no such thing as international law. There are only treaties and agreements--that hold no power over those who don't sign on. If any nation wishes to claim more area beyond its shores than the rest have agreed to be just and proper, their claim carries weight only so long as they have enough large warships patrolling it.