Current Legal Developments

• Published in: The international journal of marine and coastal law Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 269 - 274
• Main Authors: Clinton, William J, Noyes, John E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands BRILL 2000
• Subjects: Baselines (Law of the sea); Contiguous zones (Law of the sea); Economic zones (Law of the sea); Territorial waters; United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 December 10); UNITED STATES
• ISSN: 0927-3522; 1571-8085; 0927-3522
• DOI: 10.1163/157180800X00109

On 2 September 1999, President Bill Clinton proclaimed an extension of the contiguous zone for the United States of America to 24 nautical miles from US baselines, The contiguous zone extension applies both to the United States and to US territories and possessions, including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The United States, which is not a party to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention), has used presidential proclamations to extend various zones to the maximum extent recognised in the Convention. President Reagan proclaimed a 200-mile US exclusive economic zone in 19832 and a 12-mile US territorial sea in 1988. The 1999 Contiguous Zone Proclamation asserts that the US contiguous zone extension is "in accordance with international law".