Water is the most vital and essential element on earth. Water is synonymous to life as it is this liquid that controls life especially on planet Earth. As water composes nearly everything on planet earth, it is most often believed that water constitutes nearly 70% on earth. The 70% is covered up through the existing and emerging seas and oceans. Indeed in the present age, it is the seas and oceans that provide a lot of living and non-living resources that enable a large part of humankind to live (90% of the world's total fish catch come from the seas. In other words, the fisheries industry is a boom through the constitution of water). Through this, one can infer and comprehend the reason for humankind's settlement along the coasts as it promotes economic growth to a large extent. If fragmented, the economic interests comprise of tourism, trade, energy and so on and so forth... Furthermore, shipping is nowadays largely used for transporting goods (import and export), so it has accordingly assumed a significant role in the development of world trade and thereby impacting globalization. However, the constant discovery of new technologies creates an urge to stretch the limits of exploitation of marine mineral resources deeper and deeper. In order to illustrate the importance of oceans, we can quote Adel Omar Alsied's description: ?As the backbone of international commerce, oceans and seas are vital to homeland security, transportation trade, environmental and scientific research, historical and cultural heritage.'
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Sommaire de l'exposé
The Exclusive Economic Zone and States (coastal and others)
General concept of the Exclusive Economic Zone
Problems linked to delimitation
The Mediterranean Case: between conflicts and cooperation
The declaration of an EEZ in the Mediterranean Sea: problems of delimitation vs. duties of coastal States
Single initiatives or collective ones to reach an 'equitable solution?
Extraits de l'exposé
[...] The solution could be to overcome loss of access thanks to conclusion of bilateral agreements especially when the establishment of such an EFZ could seriously have strong and catastrophic economic and social effects on other States and their nationals. For instance, the coastal State declaring an EFZ can recognize historical fishing rights for vessels coming from specified States. Still, one question should be answered: How should the Mediterranean States delimit their zone boundaries? By 2005, seventeen Mediterranean States had ratified the UNCLOS, two had signed it and two did not (Turkey and Israel). [...]
[...] Thus, there are successful cases where many boundaries had been settled by agreements between Mediterranean States. For instance, concerning the continental shelf: 1986 Libya-Malta agreement for implementing the Judgement of ICJ, the 1988 Libya-Tunisia case, the 1977 Greece-Italy case, the 1971 Tunisia-Italy case, the 1970 Yugoslavia-Italy case and the 1974 Spain-Italy case; concerning the territorial sea: the France-Monaco agreement, the 1986 France-Italy case and the 1975 Yugoslavia-Italy case; and concerning the EEZ: the 2003 Cyprus-Egypt agreement. Finally, co- operation and coordination seems to be the optimal solution in order to protect the Mediterranean Sea, its resources and its coasts, by creating a sole space, which means a harmonization of all the initiatives as promoted in the report of the COPEMED project that called for a deeper cooperation for the establishment of fishery legislation in Mediterranean waters. [...]
[...] from the baseline from which the territorial seas are measured. The UNCLOS Part V refers to the rules governing the rights, duties and jurisdiction of the coastal State as well as other States in the EEZ. The creation of such a zone was the fruit of a conflict between developed countries and African and Latin American States about its true and intrinsic nature: was it to be in essence a territorial sea or a part of the high seas subject to certain rights of the coastal States? [...]
[...] In addition, they have both special characteristics. On the one hand, the EEZ concerns all natural resources until 200n.m. and must be declared by the coastal State in order to exercise its jurisdiction while the continental shelf only includes non living resources and sedentary species, may extend beyond 200n.m. and does not need a proclamation. Consequently, the delimitation of the EEZ does not need to conform to the continental shelf one as such zones are autonomous from the other one. [...]
[...] Such an approach could create a patchwork of different legal regime and, consequently, difficulties linked to unresolved maritime boundaries between opposite and adjacent States. In order to solve efficiently most of the problems and conflicts between coastal States, the Mediterranean Sea would need a harmonized system. The creation of such a system is perhaps underway because the Mediterranean States give the best example of co-operation among countries bordering enclosed or semi-enclosed seas as it is explicitly asked for in article 123 of UNCLOS. [...]
Économie, administration & politique