THE LEGAL REGIMES OF THE NIGERIAN MARITIME ZONES

Abstract

Maritime law is one of the oldest branches of international law. Even before the emergence of the current state system and what we may call modern international law, the sea has been under the search-light of earlier international lawyers. Authentic schools of thought were developed in the area of the law of the sea, some of whom actually laid the foundations of present-day international law. It is the light of all these considerations we shall try to examine the Nigerian perspectives as respects the delimitation of maritime zones. As a country that signed and ratified the UNCLOS III, Nigeria is bound by the Convention and each of the zones recognised by it thus has a regime in Nigeria. We shall therefore devote this paper to Nigeria's internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, continental shelf, and exclusive economic zone.