Maritime boundaries: Gulf of entanglements

Authors

Clive H. Schofield, University of WollongongFollow
Carl Grundy-Warr, National University of Singapore

RIS ID

76134

Publication Details

C. H. Schofield and C. Grundy-Warr, 'Maritime boundaries: Gulf of entanglements' (2010) 2 (10) Asian Geographic 37-39.

Abstract

While we are accustomed to seeing the international boundaries between the respective land territories of different states marked in bold lines on maps, such jurisdictional limits and boundaries are often absent offshore. Thus, the familiar political map of the world appears to stop at the water’s edge.

The omission of national maritime claims and boundaries from many maps is a curious and misleading one as coastal states have, over time, exerted ever more expansive claim over maritime space in a process dubbed “creeping coastal state jurisdiction”. Coastal state maritime claims now extend to the 200-nautical-mile (nm) limit from the coast as a general rule and may extend even further where the continental margin exceeds that limit.