The Need for Effective Exercise of Jurisdiction

It is well established in customary international law, then, that an historic claim to waters must have not only been continuously exercised, but also effectively, enforced after the ?critical' date of formal claim in the past. The state activity required for this should constitute what the UN Juridical Regime calls "effective exercise of sovereignty over the area" by the claimant State-a matter on which the claimant State has, as in all other aspects of alleged historic claim, the burden of proof. As the US Supreme Court emphasised clearly in the Cook Inlet case, "[t]he assertion of national jurisdiction over coastal waters for purposes of fisheries management frequently differs in extent from the boundaries claimed as inland or even territorial waters"; i.e., it may involve "a characteristic of territorial seas rather than inland waters". The more particular international requirements in this regard are discussed in this chapter.Keywords: claimant state; Cook Inlet case; effective exercise of sovereignty; historic waters claim; international law; national jurisdiction; territorial waters; UN Juridical Regime