1982 Covention law of the sea

Under the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, of which the Philippines is a signatory, the territorial sea has a uniform breadth of 12 miles measured from the low water mark of the coast.
The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea accepted our definition of internal waters according to the archipelago doctrine but limited the territorial sea for all states to 12 nautical miles from the low-water mark of the coast.

Settlement of Disputes arising from the UN convention of the Sea (UNCLOS). Part XV of the 1982 Convention on the Law of Sea requires States to settle peacefully any dispute concerning the Convention. Failing a bilateral settlement, art 286 provides that any dispute shall be submitted for compulsory settlement to one of the tribunals having jurisdiction. These include the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea (ITLOS), the International Court of Justice , and arbitral or special arbitral tribunals constituted under UNCLOS.

Contiguous Zone

Contiguous Zone- Extends up to 12 nautical miles from the territorial sea. Although technically, not part of the territory of the State, the Coastal state may exercise limited jurisdiction over the contiguous zone, to prevent infringement of customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws.

Exclusive Economic Zone

Exclusive Economic Zone.

Extends up to 200 nautical miles from the low-water mark or the baselines, as the case may be. Technically, the area beyond the territorial sea is not part of the territory of the State, but the coastal State may exercise sovereign rights over economic resources of the sea, seabed, subsoil, although other States shall have freedom of navigation and over flight, to lay submarine cables and pipelines, and other lawful uses. States with overlapping exclusive economic zones are enjoined to enter into the appropriate treaty for the joint exploitation and utilization of the resources in the area. Included in the Philippines exclusive economic zone is the Scarborough Shoal, a rock formation about 135 kilometers from Iba, Zambales.

STRAIGHT LINE BASELINE METHOD

STRAIGHT LINE BASELINE METHOD.

To determine the extent of archipelagic waters, the archipelagic state shall draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of the outermost islands and drying reefs, provided that ratio of the area of the water to the area of the land, including atolls, is between 1:1 and 9:1. The length of such baselines shall not exceed 100 nautical miles, except that up to 3% of the total number of baseline enclosing any archipelago may exceed that length up to a maximum of 125 miles. The baselines drawn should not depart, to any appreciable extent, from the general configuration of the archipelago. All the waters within the baselines shall then be considers as internal waters. The breadth of the 12 mile territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf shall then be measured from the archipelagic baselines

ARCHIPELAGIC WATERS

ARCHIPELAGIC WATERS. The Archipelago Doctrine: The Waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth or dimension, are to be treated as internal waters.

A.) Archipelago: A group of islands, including parts of islands interconnecting waters, and other natural features which are closed interrelated is such islands, waters and other natural features which form an intrinsic geographical, economic and political entity, or which historically has been regarded as such.

National territory of the Philippine

National Territory

Sec 1, Art 1 of 1986 Philippine Constitution, defines the National territory of the Philippines as follows: “The National Territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of the terrestrial, fluvial, and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas. The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth or dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines”

A.) Organic acts and issuances affecting the National territory

I. Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898 (cession of the Philippine islands by Spain to the United States;

II. Treaty between Spain and the U.S., at Washington, on Nov 7 , 1900 ( Cagayan, Sulu and Sibato)

III Treaty between and the U.S. and Great Britain, jan 2, 1930 (Turtle Islands and Mangsee Islands)

IV. 1935 Constitution ( Batanes)

V. 1973 Constitution ( territory belonging to the Philippines by historic right or legal title)

VI. PD 1596 , June 11, 1978 ( Philippines officially laid claim to KALAYAAN Islands by virtue of occupation and exercise of jurisdiction)

B.) The second sentence of Sec 1, Art I, is a statement of the Archipelago doctrine of national territory.