Exclusive Economic Zones Explainer
An exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, is a maritime area beyond and adjacent to a coastal state’s territorial sea where that state has specified rights and jurisdiction. Its outer limit can extend up to two hundred nautical miles from the territorial-sea baselines, subject to boundaries with other states. The two hundred miles are not an additional distance measured from the outer edge of the territorial sea. The zone gives important authority over resources, but it does not turn the entire area into national territory.
Within an EEZ, the coastal state has sovereign rights relating to exploration, exploitation, conservation, and management of natural resources. These include living resources such as fish and nonliving resources associated with the relevant waters, seabed, and subsoil. The legal framework also addresses activities such as energy production and specified jurisdiction over installations, marine scientific research, and environmental protection. The phrase sovereign rights is important: these are rights for particular purposes, rather than the broader sovereignty that applies in the territorial sea.
Imagine a fishing vessel seeking to catch fish in another state’s EEZ. Resource-management rules and authorization requirements can apply to that activity. A different vessel merely navigating through the same zone engages a different legal question, because other states retain navigation freedoms under the applicable framework. These distinctions help explain why controlling fishing does not amount to a general power to prohibit all foreign shipping. States exercising their rights must also take account of the rights and duties of others, rather than treating the zone as legally empty ocean.
EEZ claims can overlap where countries’ coasts are relatively close, making maritime delimitation important. Questions about islands, baselines, disputed geography, and the relationship between water-column rights and seabed rights can further complicate a map. The continental shelf is a related but distinct legal concept and should not be treated as interchangeable with an EEZ. For readers, the practical approach is to identify the activity at issue, the claimed maritime zone, and any relevant boundary agreement or dispute. That approach separates legitimate resource interests from broader assertions of control that the legal framework may not support.
An EEZ can reach up to two hundred nautical miles from territorial-sea baselines, subject to relevant maritime boundaries.
The coastal state has specific sovereign rights over resources. An EEZ is not equivalent to territorial sovereignty over the entire sea.
Fishing and resource extraction can require authorization under the coastal state’s lawful rules. Navigation raises different questions.
Other states retain navigation freedoms within the applicable legal framework. Resource rights do not authorize a blanket shipping ban.
Overlapping coastal claims can require boundary delimitation. Geography and baseline rules affect the available space.
The continental shelf concerns seabed and subsoil rights under a distinct regime. Its legal limits do not always match those of an EEZ.
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