The Breadth of the Territorial Sea and Its Implications for Unrestricted U.S. Naval Operations.

Since 1945, the traditional three-mile territorial sea has been under repeated attack. Postwar advances in techniques for fishing, undersea mining and drilling have given offshore waters considerable economic importance, resulting in a twelve-mile territorial sea claim or greater as a majority position today. The implications of this expansion for the U.S. Navy are enormous. The right of innocent passage, which has never existed for submerged submarine transits or aircraft overflight, is now being subjected to increasingly restrictive interpretations for surface ships. This paper briefly traces the question of freedom of the seas, and international efforts which have sought agreement on the breadth of the territorial seas. Problems associated with unilateral claims, international straits, and naval mobility are examined in the context of an enlarged territorial sea. A U.S. position for a future Law of the Sea Conference is proposed and includes a framework for international regulatory machinery. Author