The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in International Law: A Guide to UNCLOS Part V

Part V of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides for an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), defined under Article 55 as “an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime,” as set out in the same convention. The hallmark of the EEZ is that a state exercises certain sovereign rights in the area but does not have full sovereignty. The main aspect involves the nation’s exclusive right to exploit the natural resources (fishing and mineral) located within the EEZ. Beyond UNCLOS, the EEZ is also recognized as part of customary international law. For example, in Case Concerning the Continental Shelf (Libya/Malta), the International Court of Justice found that “[i]t is in the Court’s view incontestable that, apart from those provisions, the institution of the exclusive economic zone, with its rule on entitlement by reason of distance, is shown by the practice of States to have become a part of customary law.”

The size of the zone is to be up to 200 nautical miles, measured from the baselines, which are the low-water lines along the coast as marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal state (UNCLOS Article 5). The Exclusive Economic Zone therefore overlaps with the contiguous zone and with the high seas but is a sui generis area in which specific rules, set out in Part V of UNCLOS, apply.

The rights and duties of coastal states in the EEZ are primarily regulated by Articles 56 and 61 through 73 of UNCLOS. Under Article 56, the coastal state has sovereign rights over exploration, exploitation, conservation, and management of natural resources, including both living and nonliving resources, as well as other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy. This would cover a broad range of activities, including fishing, environmental responsibilities, and the production of electricity from water, currents, or winds. Coastal states are required to determine the allowable catch of living resources in the EEZ but must do so in a way that ensures the maintenance of living resources is not endangered through overexploitation, while also being required to promote the objective of optimum utilization of such living resources.

In the case of living resources that overlap between the economic zones of multiple countries, the involved states must seek to agree on such measures as may be required to coordinate and ensure that the conservation and development obligations are met. Moreover, the coastal state also has jurisdiction as it relates to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations and structures, marine scientific research, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment. The convention places a limitation on the exercise of these rights by the coastal states—namely that they must be exercised in accordance with the provisions of the convention and shall have due regard for the rights and duties of other states, such as flag state jurisdiction.

The rights of other states are set out in Article 58. These include the freedom of navigation and overflight and of laying submarine cables and pipelines, as well as other internationally lawful uses of the sea. Importantly, however, in exercising these rights and duties, such other states must comply with the laws and regulations of the coastal state as well as the provisions of UNCLOS and international law more broadly. In the case of rights that are not ascribed to coastal or other states, the convention provides that any conflict should be decided on the basis of equity.

The Exclusive Economic Zone has been subject to a broad range of cases before international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Some are considered landmark judgments, including MV Saiga No. 2 (St .Vincent and the Grenadines v. Guinea) and the Arctic Sunrise Arbitration (Kingdom of the Netherlands v. the Russian Federation). Jean-Pierre Gauci

FURTHER READING: OECD. 2001. “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Part V).” https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID = 884. Accessed June 7, 2016.

Wang, James C. F. 1992. Handbook on Ocean Politics & Law. New York: Greenwood Press.