ABSTRACT
This chapter explores two federally controlled spaces of the U.S. federal government, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the public lands. It outlines their genesis and modern-day features, noting their differences, and identifying some ways in which they are similar. Among the many types of public lands, the National Forests appear to be most comparable to the EEZ, for ecological, social, and governance reasons. National forests and oceans both include diverse, complex ecosystems, with huge variability depending on latitude, altitude, nutrients, and water characteristics. In the 1980s, the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) changed international ocean law in several ways. It allowed greater national control over some areas, including an expanded 12-mile territorial sea, a 12-24-mile contiguous zone, and a 12-200-mile EEZ. Both National Forests and the EEZ experienced transitions over the 20th century from conditions of open access, with little centralized control, to heavily regulated spaces with complex combinations of property rights.
