THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARINE The International Journal of AND COASTAL Marine and Coastal Law 30 (2015) 379–387 LAW brill.com/estu

Current Legal Developments

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Recent Changes to the United Kingdom’s Legislation Relating to the Law of the Sea

The United Kingdom’s legislation relating to the law of the sea underwent sig- nificant changes during 2014. Not only did the United Kingdom (UK) declare an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (some would say, not before time), but the legislation on deep sea mining has been updated, as has the relating to the determination of baselines around the UK.

The Exclusive Economic Zone

Part V of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) estab- lishes the legal regime of the EEZ.1 The EEZ extends to 200 nautical (nm) from baselines, and gives the coastal State “sovereign rights” over the natural resources, both living and non-living, of the water column, as well as over activities for the economic exploitation of the zone, for example for the pro- duction of energy.2 The coastal State also has jurisdiction over installations and structures in the EEZ, as well as with regard to the protection of the marine environment.3 The UK acceded to the LOSC on 25 July 1997, but did not immediately declare an EEZ, and indeed did not do so until 2014. Nevertheless, the UK had, both

1 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Montego Bay, 10 December 1982 (1833 UNTS 397), and the Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, New York, 4 August 1995 (1836 UNTS 42). 2 LOSC, Arts. 56–7. 3 LOSC, Art. 60.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi 10.1163/15718085-12341356 380 Whomersley prior to its accession to the LOSC and subsequently, made use of the powers in Part V of the LOSC in a number of respects. The first instance of this was the Fishery Limits Act 1976 which estab- lished British fishery limits.4 These extended to 200 nm from UK baselines, or to the median line if that was less than 200 nm. It is important to emphasise that British fishery limits did not extend to agreed boundaries with the UK’s eight maritime neighbours (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark in respect of the Faroe Islands), but to the median line. The background to the 1976 Act was the gradual acceptance in the mid-1970s, including particularly by the United States (US), that the new Convention on the Law of the Sea would include provisions for EEZs, and indeed the US Congress enacted legislation in 1976 to provide for a 200 nm Fishery Conservation Zone around the coasts of the US. The response of the Member States of the European Community was to set a deadline, in a resolu- tion of the European Council adopted on 3 November 1976, that all Member States of the European Community should extend their fishery jurisdiction off their North Sea and Atlantic coasts to 200 nm by 1 January 1977.5 Thus the 1976 Act was enacted in quite a hurry to meet this deadline, and one presumes that it was thought impractical to reach agreement with all eight of the UK’s mari- time neighbours in the short time scale. In fact, the UK’s view of where the median line lay differed in some cases from where certain other States considered the median line to lie. This was particularly so in the case of France, Ireland and the Faroe Islands. The effect was that so-called grey zones were created, where the areas over which the two States exercised fishery jurisdiction under their respective national legislation overlapped; in these zones, the respective fisheries enforcement authorities reached informal understandings whereby each would have exclusive juris- diction to take enforcement action against vessels of its own State, but either could take enforcement action against vessels of third States. These under- standings were entirely informal, although the one with the Faroe Islands was eventually formalised in an Agreement of 1999.6

4 Section 1 of the Fishery Limits Act 1976, chapter 72. All subsequent references to UK legislation can be accessed online at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/. 5 Council Resolution of 3 November 1976 on certain external aspects of the creation of a 200- fishing zone in the Community with effect from 1 January 1977, OJ No C 105, 7.5.1981, p. 1. 6 Agreement between the Government of the United and , on the one hand, and the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark together with the Home Government of the Faroe Islands, on the other hand, relating to the Maritime Delimitation in the area between the Faroe Islands and the United Kingdom, done at Tόrshavn on 18 May 1999 (UK Treaty Series No. 76 (1999), Cm 4514).

The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 30 (2015) 379–387