Inland waters of a coastal state

(Baonghean.vn) -Question 12. What are internal waters? What is the scope of internal waters? What is the legal regime of internal waters?

Reply:The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates: "The waters inside the baseline used to calculate the width of the territorial sea are the internal waters of the coastal State" (Article 8). According to this definition, internal waters include estuaries, lagoons, bays, ports, and waters inside the baseline and adjacent to the coastline; historical waters also fall under the regime of internal waters. Internal waters are considered as part of the land territory of the coastal State.

Beaches bordering the land are usually inland waters. (Illustrative image)

It is worth noting that when a straight baseline is drawn in accordance with the method that incorporates into internal waters waters that were not previously considered internal waters, the right of innocent passage as stated in the Convention still applies in those waters.

Article 9 of the 2012 Vietnamese Law on the Sea stipulates that internal waters are the waters adjacent to the coastline, located inside the baseline, and are part of Vietnam's territory.

Article 10 defines the legal regime of inland waters: The State exercises complete, absolute, and full sovereignty over inland waters as it does over land territory.

The seas of a coastal nation

According to the Q&A on Vietnam's Law of the Sea

(To be continued)