Quaderni IRCrES 16. Cap.16

Legal patchwork and national borders in the Mediterranean Sea

Gemma Andreone

CNR-ISGI, National Research Council – Institute for International Legal Studies, via dei Taurini 19, 00185 Rome, Italy

Corresponding author: gemma.andreone@cnr.it

Abstract

The Mediterranean is a particularly vulnerable sea due to its morphology and its geographical position, and it is a highly complex basin also from a legal point of view. This paper highlights some legal issues emerging from state and international practice that are destined to influence the future developments of the legal regime of the Mediterranean Sea. In particular, the focus is on the legal fragmentation and uncertainty related to national regulations and actions in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that can entail a number of risks for an effective and durable protection of the marine ecosystem. Indeed, the legal patchwork of the maritime zones in which the basin is divided and the existing and potential conflicts on the delimitation of those zones between the coastal states can undermine national or even international efforts to protect the marine environment and its resources, thus causing negative and irreversible effects on the whole planet ecosystem. This paper is complementary to the video presented by the author at Blue Planet Economy (BPE) European Maritime Forum 2021.

Keywords: Mediterranean Sea, exclusive economic zone, environmental protection.

How to Cite this Article

Andreone, G. (2022). Legal patchwork and national borders in the Mediterranean Sea. In Vitali, G. & Zoppi, I.M. (eds). CNR case histories in the Blue Planet Economy (pp. 113-124). Quaderni IRCrES 16. Moncalieri, TO: CNR-IRCrES, pp. 113-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.23760/2499-6661.2022.16.16