Off-shore installations and artificial islands shall not be considered as permanent harbour works. US-China International Law Disputes in the South China Sea The territorial sea is under the jurisdiction of that particular country; however, foreign ships (both merchant and military) ships are allowed passage through it. The issue of varying claims of territorial waters was raised in the UN in 1967 by Arvid Pardo, of Malta, and in 1973 the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea was convened in New York. The foregoing provisions do not apply to so-called "historic" bays, or in any case where the system of straight baselines provided for in article7 is applied. Where the method of straight baselines is applicable under paragraph1, account may be taken, in determining particular baselines, of economic interests peculiar to the region concerned, the reality and the importance of which are clearly evidenced by long usage. Each coastal State may claim a territorial sea that extends seaward up to 12 nautical miles (nm) from its baselines. Except as provided in PartIV, waters on the landward side of the baseline of the territorial sea form part of the internal waters of the State. In 1972, the U.S. proclaimed a contiguous zone extending from 3 to 12 miles offshore (Department of StatePublic Notice 358,37 Fed. United States v. Ray,294 F. Supp. 0000003644 00000 n 2. All coastal states have the. Part XI of the convention provides for a regime relating to minerals on the seabed outside any state's territorial waters or exclusive economic zones (EEZ). If a river flows directly into the sea, the baseline shall be a straight line across the mouth of the river between points on the low-water line of its banks. 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. 5. Accession to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea Is Unnecessary