Alone at sea: Chile's presencial ocean policy

Abstract

Chile has long been at the forefront of international efforts to extend the ocean jurisdiction of coastal state. Its 1947 unilateral declaration of a 200-mile fisher/whaling zone eventually led to the internationally recognised concept of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) now contained in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. Chile is now promoting a new concept, the Presencial Sea. This would give coastal states special interests in the high seas adjacent to EEZs, and the right to take certain unilateral actions in respect of these interests. The specifics of such a concept are still in a state of development, but Chile's own claim, contained in a 1991 national law, would represent a 500% increase over the area covered by the country's existing EEZ. Justification of the need for the concept was in part based on problems with straddling fisheries, but the 1995 UN Straddling Stocks Agreement now provides an answer to some of those issues. Despite Chile's former success in promoting the recognition of EEZs, the concept of a Presencial Sea would in practice create chaos rather than stability in international law, and would result in the unravelling rather than the evolution of ocean governance.