The legal regime for the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is enshrined in the Unites Nations Law Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNLOS) on December 10, 1982.
- Theodore C. Kariotis
Part V of that Convention (more precisely, articles 55 to 75) provides for an EEZ “extending 200 nautical miles seaward from the coast.”
If all coastal states thus exercised their jurisdiction over their own EEZs, some 38 million square nautical miles would become their “economic patrimony.”
The oceans represent 71 percent of the total surface of the earth, and 32 percent of that area falls under the jurisdiction of coastal states.
Inside these economic zones would lie 90 percent of global fishing, 87 percent of oil deposits, and…