engleski

Maritime Delimitation in a Semi-enclosed Sea: The Case of the Adriatic Sea

1. The definition of "enclosed or semi-enclosed seas", contained in Article 122 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention), is the result of long, mostly informal negotiations and compromises, agreed upon at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III). The result of those negotiations is a vague text of Article 122, which does not clarify even the question whether it concerns two categories of seas - "enclosed" and "semi-enclosed" seas - or one, for which either of the two terms can be used. Be that as it may, the Adriatic possesses all the characteristics of "enclosed or semi-enclosed seas" listed in Article 122 of the LOS Convention.//2. In discussing the rules on "enclosed or semi-enclosed seas" at UNCLOS III, there were states (Iran, Thailand, Turkey) which insisted on having specific rules on sea boundary delimitation for such seas. However, this goal was unrealistic. The general rules on delimitation were one of the hard-core issues at the Conference, and the elaboration of special rules on the delimitation of marine spaces in enclosed or semi-enclosed seas would have been too difficult a task for UNCLOS III. Therefore, the general rules on the delimitation of the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf, adopted in the 1958 and 1982 Law of the Sea Conventions, apply to all the seas and oceans, whatever their denomination.//3. The paper focuses on the sea boundary delimitation of Croatia with its neighbors: Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro.

law of the sea, UN Law of the Sea Convention, maritime delimitation, semi-enlosed sea, Adriatic Sea

nije evidentirano