UNCLOS : United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982 and came into force in 1994.

It lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world's oceans and seas establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources. As a single instrument, it embodies the traditional rules for the use of the oceans and at the same time introduces new legal concepts and regimes and addresses new concerns. The Convention also provides the framework for further development of specific areas of the law of the sea.

(IMO website, October 2007)

UNCLOS defines major zones where different standards, rights and rules are applicable:

• internal waters : all waters landward of the baselines (e.g. low-water line)and all harbours (Any law in force in the country, including the common law, shall also apply in its internal waters and the airspace above its internal waters. The right of innocent passage does generally not exist in the internal waters.)
• territorial waters : the sea within a distance of 12 nautical miles (~22 km) from the baselines (Any law in force in the country, including the common law, shall also apply in its territorial waters and the airspace above its territorial waters. The right of innocent passage shall exist in the territorial waters. In the territorial sea, submarines and other underwater vehicles are required to navigate on the surface and to show their flag.)
• contiguous zone : the sea beyond the territorial waters but within a distance of twenty-four nautical miles (~44 km) from the baselines (Within its contiguous zone and the airspace above it, the country shall have the right to exercise all the powers which may be considered necessary to prevent contravention of any fiscal law or any customs, emigration, immigration or sanitary law and to make such contravention punishable.)
• maritime cultural zone : the sea beyond the territorial waters but within a distance of twenty-four nautical miles (~44 km) from the baselines (Subject to any other law the country shall have, in respect of objects of an archaeological or historical nature found in the maritime cultural zone, the same rights and powers as it has in respect of its territorial waters.)
• exclusive economic zones (EEZ): the sea beyond the territorial waters but within a distance of two hundred nautical miles (~367 km) from the baselines (Subject to any other law the country shall have, in respect of all natural resources in the exclusive economic zone, the same rights and powers as it has in respect of its territorial waters.)
• continental shelf :

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