Marine scientific research and the right to lay submarine cables and pipelines: Differences in regime

International law of the sea – as codifi ed in UNCLOS – provides for the progres-

sive extension of state sovereign rights and jurisdiction towards the high seas. As

is well known, coastal states are entitled to have a continental shelf and an EEZ,

extending for 200 nm from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial

sea is measured (also progressively extended from 6 to 12 nm).2