Original scientific paper
THE BOUNDARIES OF THE SUBMARINE AREAS OF THE ADRIATIC STATES
Marina Vokić Žužul
; Jadranski zavod HAZU, Zagreb
Valerija Filipović
orcid.org/0000-0001-9348-913X
; Kartografski odjel Hrvatskog hidrografskog instituta u Splitu
Abstract
This paper analyses all the established boundaries of submarine areas in the Adriatic, as
well as those that are yet to be defined, especially in the context of the recent exploring and
exploiting of its natural resources. In addition to Croatia and Italy that share the largest proportion
of the seabed and subsoil in the Adriatic, Montenegro and Albania are also entitled
to their own continental shelves. Two Adriatic states with the shortest coastlines – Slovenia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina are geographically disadvantaged states, and cannot have their
own continental shelves as a natural prolongation of their land territory. Therefore, the
submarine areas of those countries terminate on the outer limit of their territorial sea. Aside
from the consideration of these boundaries and continental shelf boundaries established by
the agreements between the Adriatic states, the authors also critically examine Slovenia’s
unilateral acts on the proclamation of the continental shelf of 2005, which have no basis in
the international law.
This paper focuses on the consideration of the existing continental shelf boundary that divides
the submarine areas between Croatia and Italy, as the future boundary of their superjacent
waters. In accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, this
boundary line should become a single maritime boundary of their continental shelves and
exclusive economic zones (that is, the ecological protection zone of Italy and the ecological and
fisheries protection zone of the Republic of Croatia). Such a single all-purpose boundary is in
the best interest of legal certainty in all uses of the sea. In the recent decades, it has completely
replaced various delimitation lines for several maritime zones in the same maritime area, in
the practice of international courts and tribunals.
With respect to the results of the recently conducted explorations of potential oil and gas fields
in the southern Adriatic, the paper also draws attention to the necessity of drawing the line
of the lateral boundary of the continental shelf between Croatia and Montenegro, as soon as
possible. The authors analyze the possible directions of the new boundary, taking into account
that the temporary line, determined by the Protocol between the Government of the Republic
of Croatia and the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on temporary
border regime along the southern border between the two states in 2002, deviates significantly
from the equidistance line.
Keywords
sea-bed and subsoil; territorial sea; continental shelf; delimitation; geographically disadvantaged states; single maritime boundary; the Adriatic Sea
Hrčak ID:
144383
URI
Publication date:
8.9.2015.
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