Law for secure maritime zones

Law of the sea is a branch of public international law governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982. It is called the constitution for the law of the sea. This convention empowers the coastal state to enact law for the protection of maritime zones. For example, New Zealand had enacted the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act in 2012 whereas we have the Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act of 1974 as well as that of Rules of 1977. However, this old legislation is considered to serve the purpose of UNCLOS. 

Bangladesh is also a signatory party to this Convention. Thus, we can enact a law for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing natural living or non-living resources of the sea like the way Russia, China and the USA have already enacted. This law will definitely ensure the security of our marine energy and marine resources from any threats.

Legitimacy of territorial sea is prescribed in article 3 of the UNCLOS, which states that a costal state has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baselines determined in accordance with this Convention. But we did not incorporate it in our legislation of 1974. Territorial sea is much closer to a coastal state than contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone. Therefore, lack of surveillance in this area may foster a number of criminal activities specially human trafficking by sea in recent past and other crimes, i.e. arms trafficking, territorial attacks against shipping, hijacking, the smuggling of arms, illegal fishing, sound and water pollution, dumping of crude oil and human wastes, etc.

There is a contrast of right within this territorial sea between the costal state and ship of other states. Contrast is that the coastal state has power to exercise sovereign right over its resources on the other hand ships of all states has right of innocent passage through this territorial sea. 

In order to protect sovereign right of coastal state (Bangladesh) and right of innocent passage of all other state, UNCLOS in its article 21 directly empowers the costal states to adopt laws and regulations, in conformity with the provisions of this Convention and other rules of international law, relating to innocent passage through the territorial sea for the safety of navigation and regulation of maritime traffic; conservation of living resources of the sea; prevention of infringement of the fisheries laws and regulations of the coastal state; preservation of the environment of the coastal state and the prevention, reduction and control of pollution thereof; prevention of infringement of the customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations of the coastal states, etc. 
Though we have law and rules for the territorial waters and maritime zones, these legal frameworks cannot cover all the rights and power of the coastal states prescribed in article 21 and 25 of UNCLOS. It is worthy to be noted that there are some world famous cases, i.e. Corfu Channel Case between U.K. and Albania (1949) and Commonwealth of Puertocian Coast v S.S. Zoe Colocotroni (1980) regarding rights and liability of coastal states can give an idea in respect of this issue.

Moklasur Rahman Jubair
Student of LLM in Maritime Law 
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University