As used in UNCLOS Articles 6 and 47, “atoll” means a reef with or without an island situated on it surrounded by the open sea, that encloses or nearly encloses

Article 44 of the LOSC applies mutatis mutandis to archipelagic sea lanes passage. It follows that archipelagic States shall not hamper archipelagic sea lanes p

The principal elements of the right of archipelagic sea lanes passage can be summarised: (i) As with the right of transit passage, the right of archipelagic pas

The Right of Innocent Passage Through Archipelagic Waters(in law of the sea, customary international law and LOSC), delimitation of internal waters, Innocent P

As clearly stated in Article 49(1) and (2) of the LOSC, archipelagic waters are under the territorial sovereignty of the archipelagic State. However, care shoul

Article 47(1) of the LOSC provides as follows : An archipelagic State may draw straight archipelagic baselines joining the outermost points of the outermost isl

The key concept of archipelagic waters is that a group of islands in mid-ocean, i.e. ‘midocean archipelagos’, should be considered as forming a unit; and that t