Historic Waters in the Law of the Sea: A Modern Re-Appraisal (Publications on Ocean Development)

337 Pages·2008·4.58 MB·English

by  Clive R. Symmons

HISTORIC WATERS IN THE LAW OF THE SEA
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Publications on Ocean Development
Volume 61
A Series of Studies on
the International, Legal, Institutional and Policy Aspects
of Ocean Development
General Editor: Vaughan Lowe
Chichele Professor of Public International Law and Fellow of All Souls College,
Oxford University
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
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Historic Waters in the Law
of the Sea
A Modern Re-Appraisal
by
CLIVE R. SYMMONS
MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS
LEIDEN/BOSTON
2008
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A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
ISBN 978 90 04 16350 8
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided
that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood
Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
Printed in the Netherlands
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To Mike Reed,
With fond memories of legal collaboration in two
rounds of litigation involving Alaskan maritime
claims.
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ........................................................................ ix
List of Maps ..................................................................................................... xiii
Chapter 1 General Issues Relating to Historic Waters ................................... 1
Chapter 2 The Types of Waters to which Historic Claims may
be Made ....................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 3 The Regime of Historic Waters in the case of Bays/Coastal
Archipelagoes .............................................................................................. 39
Chapter 4 Historic Rights and Delimitation of Maritime Zones ................... 45
Chapter 5 Problems on Exceptional Title, ‘Ancient Rights’ and Burden
of Proof ........................................................................................................ 49
Chapter 6 An Example from the Past of an Excessive Claim and Adverse
International Reaction: The Russian Ukase of 1821 concerning Waters off
Alaska .......................................................................................................... 71
Chapter 7 Possible International Origins of Historic Claims to Waters:
International Judicial Decisions, Proceedings before International Tribunals
and Treaties .................................................................................................. 79
Chapter 8 Problems as to When and Whether an Alleged Historic Claim has
been Made Eo Nomine ................................................................................. 101
Chapter 9 The International Legal Requirements for Historic
Waters/Bays ................................................................................................. 111
Chapter 10 Exercise of Authority: The Need for a Formal, Clear and
Consistent Claim .......................................................................................... 117
Chapter 11 The Necessity for Publicity of Historic Claim: Publication /
Noti(cid:2) cation of the Claim to Other States ..................................................... 139
Chapter 12 The Need for Continuity of Historic Claim and for Satisfaction of
the Time Factor ............................................................................................ 151
Chapter 13 The Need for Effective Exercise of Jurisdiction ......................... 163
Chapter 14 Knowledge of, and Acquiescence to, Historic Claims ................ 213
Chapter 15 Vital Interests (‘Vital Bays’): A ‘Fourth’ Factor Relevant to
Evidence of Historic Waters? ....................................................................... 247
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viii Contents
Chapter 16 Reliance for Historic Title on Succession to Actions and Claims
of a Predecessor ........................................................................................... 259
Chapter 17 Problems Relating to Disclaimer of Historic Title ...................... 271
Chapter 18 Conclusions: Does the Concept of Historic Waters have
Continuing Relevance in Contemporary International Law? ...................... 283
Appendix .......................................................................................................... 301
Lists of alleged Historic Bays ...................................................................... 301
Bibliography .................................................................................................... 305
Index ................................................................................................................ 311
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Preface and Acknowledgements
The doctrine of historic waters as such has not received much academic attention in
the past. For example, even the supposed doctrine of historic bays has only received
partial treatment in older treatises on the law of the sea and, in the post-war period,
with the publication of two English-language monographs on the regime of bays gen-
erally, respectively by Strohl, The International Law of Bays (1963) and by Bouchez,
The Regime of Bays in International Law (1964). The topic has also been incidentally
dealt with in the broader context of historic title generally (and so not wholly in a mari-
time context) as in the useful and pioneering work by Blum in 1965, Historic Titles
in International Law. In the early ‘60s two useful, but now dated publications, issued
forth from the UN; namely, the Memorandum by the Secretariat of the UN, “Historic
Bays” (30 September, 1957), and the Juridical Regime of Historic Waters, including
Historic Bays (a study prepared by UN Secretariat of 9 March, 1962). The emphasis in
the latter UN documents was again on historic bays(though noting a growing tendency
to describe such maritime claims as “historic waters” (Juridical Regime, at p. 5) only
incidentally touching on historic waters more generally such as historic archipelagic
coastal waters or territorial seas (as was the situation in Alaska v. US (2005) which
forms a central theme to this book). Additionally (id.), the Juridical Regime only
claimed (modestly) to be an “initial” and “tentative” discussion of the topic.
In more recent times, the only book of direct relevance to the present title appears
to have been a somewhat narrowly-historical study published in Italian in 1990 by
Gioia (Titoli Storici e Linee di Base del Mare Territoriale, Edizioni Cedam, Padova
(1990)). Even the latter is now dated as to contents, as since that time the International
Court of Justice (‘ICJ’) has considered the matter of historic bays in the Land, Island
and Frontier case (the El Salvador/Honduras case) regarding the status of the Gulf
of Fonseca;and the US Supreme Court most recently has adjudicated in depth on the
claimed historic status of the waters of the Alexander Archipelago in Alaska v. US
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