The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a maritime zone that due to its sui generis character may give rise to many controversies between States. Lately, it is increasingly noticeable that coastal States extend their domestic legislation, be it their customs laws and regulations regulating oil bunkering, or simply their criminal legislation, to their EEZ. In some cases, coastal States even enforce such legislation. The most recent occasion of coastal States’ extension of jurisdiction, observed mainly in the Gulf of Guinea, concerns the operation of private armed guards employed onboard foreign-flagged vessels traversing the EEZ for security reasons.
International courts and tribunals have occasionally addressed relevant issues, but still is a matter that merits further discussion. International law is well-equipped with various principles and tools to accommodate any conflict of uses in the EEZ. In applying the relevant rules of international law, this article posits that the principle of exclusive jurisdiction of the flag State enshrined in Article 92 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is applicable to all vessels in the EEZ, and unless justified under UNCLOS and other relevant rules of international law, the coastal State should abstain from the assertion of any prescriptive or enforcement jurisdiction.
