TERRITORY

Sovereignty versus Sovereign Rights

SOVEREIGNTY
Defines and characterizes a state to the
exclusion of other entities.
It is the principle of supreme authority.
Sovereignty bestows full rights, or supreme
authority on a country within its internal
waters and territorial sea, which stretch to
12 nautical miles
SOVEREIGN RIGHTS
Sovereign rights- rights of specific
functional purpose, See Article 56 of the
UNCLOS. Rights are exclusive not
preferential over other states.
Used in relation to the continental shelf
regime, right to explore and exploit the
natural and non-living resources found in
the area.
-Applies to Exclusive Economic Zone
In these cases, the exclusive authority of the
state no longer concerns all of its activities,
but only some of them
 UNCLOS
• The UNCLOS established a new order in the oceans, divided
into 17 parts, 320 articles, and nine annexes introduced
significant provisions such as but not limited to setting limits,
navigation, archipelagic status and transit regimes, exclusive
economic zones, continental shelf jurisdiction, deep seabed
mining, the exploitation regime, protection of the marine
environment, scientific research, and settlement of disputes.
 Maritime Zones Under RP Law
1. Internal Waters – absolute sovereignty
2. Territorial Sea (Paris Treaty) – 221.8 miles
(West) and 283.18 miles (East) under Treaty of
Paris/RA 5446
3. Contiguous Zone – absolute sovereignty
4. Exclusive Economic Zone (above seabed) –
absolute sovereignty (Constitution)
5. Continental Shelf (underwater) – absolute
sovereignty (Petroleum Act)
6. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) – absolute
sovereignty (Petroleum Act)
Maritime Zones Under UNCLOS
1. Archipelagic Waters – limited sovereignty
2. Territorial Sea –12 miles
3. Contiguous Zone –24 miles
4. Exclusive Economic Zone (above seabed) –
200 miles
5. Continental Shelf (underwater) – 200 miles
6. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) – up to 350
miles
MARITIME ZONES
UNDER UNCLOS

Baselines

Archipelagic
Waters
Territorial Sea
(12 M)

Contiguous Zone
(24 M)

EEZ (200 M)

Juridical
Continental
Shelf (200 M)
Extended
Continental Shelf
(Theoretical at 350
M)
RP Law: Internal waters
= Absolute Sovereignty
of Coastal State
UNCLOS Internal Waters =
Archipelagic Waters
● Right of Archipelagic Sealanes Passage
● Right of Innocent Passage
● Right to Fish by Traditional Foreigners
Internal Waters Under RA 5446

Internal waters
 Internal waters
Internal waters
under UNCLOS =
Archipelagic Waters
with Archipelagic
Sealanes
 Territorial Sea:
• RP Law (Paris Treaty)
West – 221.8 miles
East – 283.18 miles
• UNCLOS – 12 miles
 221.8 M 283.18 M
Territorial Sea
Under RP Law
TERRITORIAL
SEA UNDER
RA3046/5446
(263,300 sq. M)

TREATY OF
PARIS (1898)
Territorial Sea Under UNCLOS

12 M TERRITORIAL
SEA (UNCLOS)
34,300 sq M
 Difference:
• Between Treaty of Paris and
UNCLOS = 229,000 sq. miles
• Treaty of Paris – 263,300 sq. miles
• UNCLOS – 34,300 sq. miles
 Contiguous Zone:
• RP Law – Absolute Sovereignty
• UNCLOS – Limited jurisdiction
over customs, fiscal,
immigration,
or sanitary laws.
Contiguous Zone = 12 + 12 (24 M)

Contiguous Zone
(24 M)
Exclusive Economic Zone :
• RP Law – Absolute Sovereignty
• UNCLOS – Limited sovereignty
over exploration, exploitation,
conservation and management of
natural resources, whether living
or
non-living. Surplus catch goes to
other states.
Exclusive Economic Zone (above seabed) – 200
M

200 M EXCLUSIVE
ECONOMIC ZONE
 Continental Shelf :
 RP Law – Absolute Sovereignty
(Petroleum Act)
 UNCLOS – Limited sovereignty
over shelf for exploration and
exploitation of natural resources.
Continental Shelf (underwater) – 200
M
200 M JURIDICAL
CONTINENTAL SHELF
(SEA BED)
 Extended Continental
Shelf:
• State should file claim
• Overlaps with neighboring
states
 Extended Continental
Shelf:
 UNCLOS – Limited sovereignty
over the shelf for exploration and
exploitation of natural resources.
Surplus catch goes to other states.
Extended Continental Shelf up to 350 M
350 M EXTENDED
CONTINENTAL SHELF
 Overlapping
Philippine
EEZ and ECS ECS

PHILIPPINES

JAPAN Philippine
TAIWAN
EEZ
CHINA
VIETNAM
MALAYSIA
INDONESIA
PALAU
POTENTIAL
350M ECS

ECS is subject to
submission of
technical and
scientific
evidence to the
UN CLCS
• The convention set the limit of various areas, measured from a
carefully defined baseline. The areas are as follows

• Internal waters. Covers all water and waterways on the landward

side of the baseline. The coastal state is free to set laws, regulate
use, and use any resource. Foreign vessels have no right of
passage within internal waters.
• Article 8, UNCLOS
•
• Territorial sea. This is measured 12 nautical miles from the
baseline, the coastal state is free to set laws, regulate use, and use
any resource. Vessels were given the right of innocent passage
through any territorial waters, with strategic straits allowing the
passage of military craft as transit passage, in that naval vessels
are allowed to maintain postures that would be illegal in territorial
waters.
• "Innocent passage" is defined by the convention as
passing through waters in an expeditious and
continuous manner, which is not "prejudicial to the
peace, good order or the security" of the coastal state.
Fishing, polluting, weapons practice, and spying are not
"innocent", and submarines and other underwater
vehicles are required to navigate on the surface and to
show their flag. Nations can also temporarily suspend
innocent passage in specific areas of their territorial
seas, if doing so is essential for the protection of its
security.
• Archipelagic waters. The convention set the definition of
Archipelagic States in Part IV, which also defines how the state
can draw its territorial borders. A baseline is drawn between the
outermost points of the outermost islands, subject to these
points being sufficiently close to one another. All waters inside
this baseline are designated Archipelagic Waters. The state has full
sovereignty over these waters but foreign vessels have right of
innocent passage through archipelagic waters.
• Article 47(1)(2), UNCLOS
•
• Contiguous zone. Beyond the 12 nautical mile limit, there
is a further 12 nautical miles from the territorial sea
baseline limit, the contiguous zone, in which a state can
continue to enforce laws on customs, taxation,
immigration and pollution, if the infringement started
within the state's territory or territorial waters, or if this
infringement is about to occur within the state's
territory or territorial waters. This makes the contiguous
zone a hot pursuit area. Article 33 (1) (2), UNCLOS
•
• Exclusive economic zones (EEZs). These extend from the edge of
the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles from the baseline.
Within this area, the coastal state has sole exploitation rights over
all natural resources. Foreign nations have the freedom of
navigation and overflight, subject to the regulation of the coastal
states. Foreign states may also lay submarine pipes and cables.
• Article 55-58, UNCLOS
•
• Continental shelf. The continental shelf is defined as the natural
prolongation of the land territory to the continental margin’s
outer edge, or 200 nautical miles from the coastal state’s baseline,
whichever is greater. A state’s continental shelf may exceed 200
nautical miles until the natural prolongation ends. However, it
may never exceed 350 nautical miles from the baseline; or it may
never exceed 100 nautical miles beyond the 2,500 meter isobaths.
• Coastal states have the right to harvest mineral and non-living
material in the subsoil of its continental shelf, to the exclusion of
others. Coastal states also have exclusive control over living
resources "attached" to the continental shelf, but not to creatures
living in the water column beyond the exclusive economic zone.
•
• Aside from its provisions defining ocean boundaries,
the convention establishes general obligations for
safeguarding the marine environment and protecting
freedom of scientific research on the high seas, and also
creates an innovative legal regime for controlling
mineral resource exploitation in deep seabed areas
beyond national jurisdiction, through an International
Seabed Authority and the Common heritage of
mankind principle. It has also established the dispute
resolution mechanisms.
 TERRITORY

• Territory as an element of a state means an area over

which a state has effective control. The case of Las
Palmas Islands substantiated the theory that control
over a territory is the essence of a state. It was said
that “sovereignty over a portion of the surface of the
globe is the legal condition for the inclusion of such
portion in the territory of any particular state.” The
exact boundaries might be uncertain but at least there
should be a definitive core over which the
sovereignty is exercised
 Modes of Acquisition of Territory

1. Discovery and Occupation

2. Prescription
3. Cession
4. Conquest
5. Subjugation
6. Accretion
Discovery and occupation is a mode of acquisition by which
territory not belonging to any state, terra nullius, is placed under
the sovereignty of the discovering state. In occupation, it is
important that a territory should be terra nullius – a territory
belonging to no one at the time of the act alleged to constitute
the occupation. Formerly, it was held that the mere fact of
discovery by the agents of the state gave title to the state over a
new territory.
It was sufficient for a person in the name of his government to
plan a cross or any other sign post and claim it for his possession.
This time, it was held necessary that discovery be supplemented
by effective occupation in order to give the title. Discovery alone,
only gives an inchoate title.
The rules of effective occupation are stricter in modern times than
they were earlier. Up to the 18th century, discovery alone sufficed
a legal title. Discovery accompanied by some symbolic act
sufficed to establish good title to sovereignty over the land in
question. In their words, “the formal ceremony of taking
possession, the symbolic act was generally regarded as being
wholly sufficient per se to establish immediately a right of
sovereignty over or a valid title to areas claimed and did not
require to be supplemented by the performance of other acts as
in the case of effective occupation. A right or title so acquired
and established was deemed good against claims set up in
opposition thereof.”
• THE CASE OF ISLAND OF PALMAS CASE
(NETHERLANDS, USA) APRIL 4, 1928
• This case involves a dispute between United States of America
and the Netherlands on Palmas Islands (also called Miangas).
This case involves sovereignty and was resolved by arbitration.
•
The title of discovery, if it had not already been disposed of by the
Treaties of Munster and Utrecht, would, under the most
favorable and most extensive interpretation, exists only as an
inchoate title, as a claim to establish sovereignty by effective
occupation. An inchoate title however cannot prevail over a
definite title founded on continuous and peaceful display of
sovereignty.
that international law has stressed the importance of the “effective
occupation” of islands to prove title rather than historical rights
or first discovery. This precedent was laid down in the Island of
Palmas case in April 1928.
More recently, The International Court of Justice
decided in December 2002 in favour of Malaysia and
against Indonesia in relation to ownership over Pulau
Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan for similar reasons. The
court applied the test of evidence of “activities
evidencing an actual, continued exercise of authority
over the islands, i.e., the intention and will to act as
sovereign”.
It found that Malaysia had engaged in a regular pattern
of state-sponsored activities “revealing an intention
to exercise state functions” in relation to the islands
and which were not opposed by Indonesia
• THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF RA 9522 :
PROF. MERLIN MAGALLONA ET AL., VS
HON. EDUARDO ERMITA ET AL., G.R. NO.
187167
 DEFINITION OF TERMS

• Archipelagic State means a state constituted wholly

by one or more archipelago and may include other
islands
• Dispute is a disagreement on a point of law or fact, a conflict of
legal views or interests between two persons.
• As Defined by the Permanent Court of International Justice in
the Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions Case(1924) cited in
Anne Peters, International Dispute Settlement: A Network of
Cooperational Duties.
• International dispute are those in which the rivaling
claims are based on international law, particularly
with the parties being subjects of international law
dispute settlement is present when the competent body
or mechanism is constituted under and functions
according to international, not purely international
rules
•
• Regime of Islands is covered by Article 121 of the
UNCLOS, which refer to an island as naturally
formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is
above water at high tide.
 On cooperation

Legal Obligations

Under Article 123 of the UNCLOS- Cooperate on

marine environment, fish stocks

Article 192- States are obligated to protect and preserve

the marine environment