Gibraltars Territorial Waters

Gibraltar Territorial Waters

The legal
Basis
Regarding
Gibraltar
Territorial
Waters In the 15th & 16th centuries Spain and Portugal claimed dominion over whole oceans (mares clausae) purporting exercise a legal right to exclude ships of all other nations.
In the 17th century Britain made similar claims over her surrounding seas.
Both claims were intolerable to shipping and fisheries. At the beginning of the Seventeenth Century the first and probably greatest jurist of public international law, Hugo Grotius, propounded in his writings the doctrine of the "mare liberum" or "freedom of the sea" for all vessels.
By the first half of the 18th century the concept of the three-mile wide sovereign territorial sea emerged, and this was eventually adopted by most countries as the basis of marine jurisdiction, until the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, which entered into force in 1995, set a new standard of 12 nautical miles.
Most countries, including the European Union and all its members, are signatories to the Convention. It applies to Gibraltar.
Spain’s entry of a reservation as to Gibraltar at the time of its adherence to the Convention is of no legal effect in modifying the terms of the Convention, but it does record the view taken by Spain on this point, a view which no other signatory to the Convention accepts or accedes to.
Under the Convention Gibraltar generates its own "Territorial Sea" of 12 nautical miles, or out to median lines where other states’ coastlines are under 24 nautical miles distant from Gibraltar.
This is the current position to the North West and South, but not to the East/South East, because, although Spain and Morocco each have claimed the 12 nautical miles of the Convention (although Spain refuses to accept part of Morocco’s calculation of the median line to the West) Gibraltar has not yet extended its legal jurisdiction from 3 to 12 miles, so part of the waters to the East/South East remain international waters, though it is open to Gibraltar to annex these waters to its jurisdiction in accordance with its rights under the U.N. Convention.

United
Nations
Reference

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea website

Spanish
Statement
[part] 2. In ratifying the Convention, Spain wishes to make it known that this act cannot be construed as recognition of any rights or status regarding the maritime space of Gibraltar that are not included in article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht of 13 July 1713 concluded between the Crowns of Spain and Great Britain. Furthermore, Spain does not consider that Resolution III of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea is applicable to the colony of Gibraltar, which is subject to a process of decolonization in which only relevant resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly are applicable.

The British
Statement
[part] With regard to point 2 of the declaration made upon ratification of the Convention by the Government of Spain, the Government of the United Kingdom has no doubt about the sovereignty of the United Kingdom over Gibraltar, including its territorial waters. The Government of the United Kingdom, as the administering authority of Gibraltar, has extended the United Kingdom's accession to the Convention and ratification of the Agreement to Gibraltar. The Government of the United Kingdom, therefore, rejects as unfounded point 2 of the Spanish declaration.

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The legal Basis Regarding Gibraltar Territorial Waters	In the 15th & 16th centuries Spain and Portugal claimed dominion over whole oceans (mares clausae) purporting exercise a legal right to exclude ships of all other nations. In the 17th century Britain made similar claims over her surrounding seas. Both claims were intolerable to shipping and fisheries. At the beginning of the Seventeenth Century the first and probably greatest jurist of public international law, Hugo Grotius, propounded in his writings the doctrine of the "mare liberum" or "freedom of the sea" for all vessels. By the first half of the 18th century the concept of the three-mile wide sovereign territorial sea emerged, and this was eventually adopted by most countries as the basis of marine jurisdiction, until the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, which entered into force in 1995, set a new standard of 12 nautical miles. Most countries, including the European Union and all its members, are signatories to the Convention. It applies to Gibraltar. Spain’s entry of a reservation as to Gibraltar at the time of its adherence to the Convention is of no legal effect in modifying the terms of the Convention, but it does record the view taken by Spain on this point, a view which no other signatory to the Convention accepts or accedes to. Under the Convention Gibraltar generates its own "Territorial Sea" of 12 nautical miles, or out to median lines where other states’ coastlines are under 24 nautical miles distant from Gibraltar. This is the current position to the North West and South, but not to the East/South East, because, although Spain and Morocco each have claimed the 12 nautical miles of the Convention (although Spain refuses to accept part of Morocco’s calculation of the median line to the West) Gibraltar has not yet extended its legal jurisdiction from 3 to 12 miles, so part of the waters to the East/South East remain international waters, though it is open to Gibraltar to annex these waters to its jurisdiction in accordance with its rights under the U.N. Convention.
United Nations Reference	UN Convention on the Law of the Sea website
Spanish Statement [part]	2. In ratifying the Convention, Spain wishes to make it known that this act cannot be construed as recognition of any rights or status regarding the maritime space of Gibraltar that are not included in article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht of 13 July 1713 concluded between the Crowns of Spain and Great Britain. Furthermore, Spain does not consider that Resolution III of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea is applicable to the colony of Gibraltar, which is subject to a process of decolonization in which only relevant resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly are applicable.
The British Statement [part]	With regard to point 2 of the declaration made upon ratification of the Convention by the Government of Spain, the Government of the United Kingdom has no doubt about the sovereignty of the United Kingdom over Gibraltar, including its territorial waters. The Government of the United Kingdom, as the administering authority of Gibraltar, has extended the United Kingdom's accession to the Convention and ratification of the Agreement to Gibraltar. The Government of the United Kingdom, therefore, rejects as unfounded point 2 of the Spanish declaration.