Ec maritime zones: The delimitation aspect
Starting from the premise that regional cooperation is best served by settled maritime boundaries, this article looks into the delimitation practice by European Community (EC) states. First the municipal enactments are considered of those member states actually claiming an exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Special emphasis is given to the delimitation provisions. Since not much uniformity can be found in these provisions, the specific boundary agreements that these countries have so far concluded inter se are then analyzed. A geographical distinction is made between the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the north Atlantic, and the Mediterranean in this respect. The article concludes that not much uniformity can be found in these delimitation agreements either. These boundary questions are therefore believed to continue to burden further EEZ cooperation between EC member states. © 1992 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Maritime Delimitation in the Baltic Sea: What Has Already Been Accomplished?
To write a legal paper for an audience consisting primarily of experts in the field of navigation, transport, ocean engineering and maritime technology is not an easy task. Finding an appropriate box to tick when having to indicate the topic of the contribution when the title of the present contribution was submitted to the organizers of the conference, represented already a first hurdle. In the list of about 90 possibilities, not one really fit the subject matter of the present contribution. This was particularly worrisome, because the instructions here read: "Choose maximum three topics." Consequently, the author would particularly like to thank the organizers of the conference for having stretched somewhat the purview of the conference in order to accommodate a legal paper. The next difficulty, of course, rests on the shoulders of the present author, for he will have to write a legal paper understandable to an audience of which not all members may be familiar with the international law of the sea. Having served as a regional expert on maritime delimitation with respect to the Baltic Sea in a world-wide project initiated by the American Society of International Law, and still ongoing today, a good number of publications by the present author on this topic have appeared in legal journals or specialized books. Despite the normal practice in legal papers of making extensive use of footnotes, the present paper will only make use of a minimum number of other references, in order to enhance its readability for non-lawyers. Instead, it will provide a listing in annex of the writings by the present author on the subject to which the interested reader, wanting to find out more concrete guidelines and information, may readily turn. The present paper, first of all, is not concerned with maritime law -- a term to be found in the above-mentioned list -- but with the law of the sea. These two concepts, even though they might have been confused in the past, are today clearly distinguished from one another. The law of the sea concerns the rules of international law governing the different maritime zones and the activities carried out there. It forms a branch of international law, for it concerns mainly the relationship between states and is consequently also sometimes called "international law of the sea" or even "international public law of the sea." Maritime law, on the other hand, is part of the national law of a state, for it deals with private interests at sea in general, and with the relationship between those who exploit ships and those who make use of them more particularly. It is therefore sometimes also called "commercial maritime law." After having clarified a few crucial law of the sea notions, the present paper tries to bring some order in the maritime boundary agreements concluded so far in the Baltic Sea. It does so by taking a major political event as caesura, namely the disappearance of the former Soviet Union from the political map of the world during 1991. Finally, some concluding remarks will try to describe the present state of affairs, while comparing it to the situation as it existed on the eve of this major political event of 1991.
Security aspects of Danish and Norwegian law of the sea policies
Abstract Denmark and Norway are strategically located near two of the major Soviet fleets stationed at Kaliningrad and Murmansk. In order for the Baltic Fleet stationed at Kaliningrad to gain access to the high seas of the North Atlantic Ocean, it must pass through the Belts, the Kattegat, the Skaggerak, and the North Sea or the Straits of Dover. In order for the Northern Fleet stationed at Murmansk to gain access to the high seas of the North Atlantic Ocean, it must pass through the Svalbard Passage between the North Cape of Norway and the Svalbard archipelago down through the Greenland‐Iceland‐United Kingdom (GIUK) gap. These strategic locations of Denmark and Norway give rise to several security issues that affect the law of the sea policies of both states.