Study of the legal regime of the Strait of Gibraltar: sovereignty conflicts, marine spaces and navigation.
Publication date: 2006
Pages: 292-310
Subject: Law of the Sea
Summary: The Strait of Gibraltar is one of the world's busiest international shipping lanes, providing a key link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, as well as between the African and European continents. In view of the marine spaces proclaimed by their coastal States, it can be stated that most of their waters are subject to the sovereignty of the latter, as they form part of their internal waters or territorial sea. Precisely because of these characteristics and the fact that it connects the EEZs of Spain, Portugal and Morocco in the Atlantic with the latter's EEZ and the high seas in the Mediterranean, it can be said that it falls within the category of international straits regulated in Article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and is, therefore, subject to the regime of right of passage in transit. This paper provides an in-depth study of its legal regime in light of the international standard.