International law, Sixth edition
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International Law MALCOLM N. SHAW
of Alaska case
52 concerning the waters of Cook Inlet. The Supreme Court held that Alaska had not satisfied the terms and that the Inlet had not been regarded as a historic bay under Soviet, American or Alaskan sovereignty. Accordingly, it was the federal state and not Alaska which was entitled to the subsurface of Cook Inlet. 53 In response to the Libyan claim to the Gulf of Sirte (Sidra) as a historic bay and the consequent drawing of a closing line of nearly 300 miles in length in 1973, several states immediately protested, including the US and the states of the European Community. 54 The US in a note to Libya in 1974 referred to ‘the international law standards of past open, notorious and effective exercise of authority, and the acquiescence of foreign nations’ 55 and has on several occasions sent naval and air forces into the Gulf in order to maintain its opposition to the Libyan claim and to assert that the waters of the Gulf constitute high seas. 56 Little evidence appears, in fact, to support the Libyan contention. Islands 57 As far as islands are concerned, the general provisions noted above re- garding the measurement of the territorial sea apply. Islands are defined in the 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea as consisting of ‘a naturally- formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide’, 58 and they can generate a territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive 52 422 US 184 (1975). See also L. J. Bouchez, The Regime of Bays in International Law, Leiden, 1963, and the Tunisia–Libya Continental Shelf case, ICJ Reports, 1982, pp. 18, 74; 67 ILR, pp. 4, 67. 53 See also United States v. California 381 US 139 (1965); United States v. Louisiana (Louisiana Boundary Case) 394 US 11 (1969); United States v. Maine (Rhode Island and New York Boundary Case) 471 US 375 (1985) and Alabama and Mississippi Boundary Case, United States v. Louisiana 470 US 93 (1985). 54 See Churchill and Lowe, Law of the Sea, p. 45, and UKMIL, 57 BYIL, 1986, pp. 579–80. See also F. Francioni, ‘The Gulf of Sidra Incident (United States v. Libya) and International Law’, 5 Italian Yearbook of International Law, 1980–1, p. 85. 55 See 68 AJIL, 1974, p. 510. See also Cumulative DUSPIL 1981–8, Washington, 1994, vol. II, p. 1810. 56 See e.g. UKMIL, 57 BYIL, 1986, pp. 581–2. 57 See e.g. H. W. Jayewardene, The Regime of Islands in International Law, Dordrecht, 1990; D. W. Bowett, The Legal Regime of Islands in International Law, New York, 1979; C. Sym- mons, The Maritime Zone of Islands in International Law, The Hague, 1979; J. Simonides, ‘The Legal Status of Islands in the New Law of the Sea’, 65 Revue de Droit International, 1987, p. 161, and R. O’Keefe, ‘Palm-Fringed Benefits: Island Dependencies in the New Law of the Sea’, 45 ICLQ, 1996, p. 408. 58 Article 10(1). See also article 121(1) of the 1982 Convention. t h e l aw o f t h e s e a 565 economic zone and continental shelf where relevant. 59 Where there ex- ists a chain of islands which are less than 24 miles apart, a continuous band of territorial sea may be generated. 60 However, article 121(3) of the 1982 Convention provides that ‘rocks which cannot sustain human habi- tation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf ’. 61 Article 121(3) begs a series of questions, such as the precise dividing line between rocks and islands and as to the actual meaning of an ‘economic life of their own’, and a number of states have made controversial claims. 62 Whether this provision over and above its appearance in the Law of the Sea Convention is a rule of customary law is unclear. 63 Download 7.77 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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