ABSTRACT
With one important exception and a few minor ones, the land areas of the earth are under the complete sovereignty of States and there are no categories or degrees of sovereignty. The major exception is Antarctica; the minor exceptions are a number of neutral zones, disputed territories, self-governing but not totally sovereign entities, and other anomalous situations which, taken together, occupy only a tiny fraction of the land area. In the sea, however, the situation is much more complex. Rather than a portion of the sea being “sovereign” territory and the rest not so, there are a number of zones in the sea, horizontal, vertical and functional, over which States exercise varying degrees of sovereignty or jurisdiction. Here we cannot explain all of the complexities of these maritime zones, but only outline their most important features.
