Terra Nullius - Limits of National Jurisdiction and Sovereignty

Limits of National Jurisdiction and Sovereignty

The principal treaties defining sovereignty beyond land territory are the Outer Space Treaty and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. They confirm the full national jurisdiction over the coastal waters (internal and territorial) and over the continental shelf underground. There are limitations that allow foreign vessels the right of passage and for foreign states to lay pipelines and cables in the territorial waters, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf surface. Exploitation of marine life and mineral resources in these areas is reserved right for the coastal state. Exploitation of mineral resources in the extended continental shelf is reserved right for the coastal state, but it has to pay tax over these activities to the International Seabed Authority (UNCLOS, Art. 82). The archipelagic waters are covered by special hybrid regime with rules from territorial and internal waters.

On vessels, spacecrafts and structures in places with international jurisdiction or terra nullius the general rule is that the operator state of the vessel is responsible for it and regulates laws there. Additionally the crew are subject to the laws of the state of their citizenship. Earth orbital slots are the only type of extraterrestrial real estate recognised by law and are allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (part of the UN System).

There are some undefined limits for the application of jurisdiction and sovereignty:

• Boundary between outer space and airspace is not defined (30 km - 120 km).
• UNCLOS commission is defining the limits of the extended continental shelf.
• UNCLOS is inconclusive about the status of airspace over the contiguous zone (whether it is treated as international airspace or some special rules apply there).
• There is no defined bottom underground limit for jurisdiction and sovereignty, because in practice there are no cases where it is relevant and the current technology level does not allow the reaching of depths where conflicting claims could be made (there are some disputes about border underground oil and gas reserve reservoirs, but their depth is not enough so that the curvature of the Earth and the exact line of the underground border between the states matters).

The current entities that exercise jurisdiction and sovereignty rights are:

• the 193 United Nations member states;
• Holy See, the United Nations observer state;
• Cook Islands and Niue, associated with and represented in foreign affairs by New Zealand;
• the 16 non-self-governing territories with recognised right for self-determination by the United Nations (currently under jurisdiction of 5 UN members);
• the 10 states with limited recognition;
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the sole remaining sovereign non-state entity; has no territorial claims, but issues citizenship; has UN observer status
• the current terra nullius cases of Bir Tawil and Marie Byrd Land are not claimed by any of the other 222 entities;
• Stateless persons that do not have citizenship of any of the 222 entities.

Limits of national jurisdiction and sovereignty

Outer space
national airspace		territorial waters airspace	contiguous zone airspace	international airspace
land territory surface	internal waters surface	territorial waters surface	contiguous zone surface	Exclusive Economic Zone surface	international waters surface
internal waters		territorial waters	Exclusive Economic Zone		international waters
land territory underground		Continental Shelf surface			extended continental shelf surface		international seabed surface
		Continental Shelf underground			extended continental shelf underground		international seabed underground

full national jurisdiction and sovereignty restrictions on national jurisdiction and sovereignty international jurisdiction per common heritage of mankind