ABSTRACT
As a separate area (branch) of international law, the law of the sea regulates the activities of the subjects on the sea (the ocean). For legal purposes, the sea, which covers more than 70% of the surface of the globe, was divided into:
The domain of the mare clausum:
Internal waters, which are under the full sovereignty of the state; and
Territorial sea, which is also under the sovereignty of the coastal state, but includes the one specific right of the mare liberum.
The domain of the mare liberum:
Exclusive economic zone, including contiguous zone, where only certain sovereign rights of a coastal state apply; and
High seas.
Additionally, modern international law outlines other distinct zones where specific legal regimes apply. Two of them which concern the seabed and subsoil – the continental shelf and deep seabed (also referred to as the Area) – are primarily in the domain of the mare liberum while in the archipelagic waters, introduced in relation to the so-called archipelagic states, the approach of mare clausum prevails.