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PART IV
ARCHIPELAGIC STATES
Article 46
Use of terms
For the purposes of this Convention:
(a) "archipelagic State" means a State constituted wholly by one or
more archipelagos and may include other islands;
(b) "archipelago" means a group of islands, including parts of islands,
interconnecting waters and other natural features which are so
closely interrelated that such islands, waters and other natural
features form an intrinsic geographical, economic and political
entity, or which historically have been regarded as such.
Article 47
Archipelagic baselines
1. An archipelagic State may draw straight archipelagic baselines
joining the outermost points of the outermost islands and drying reefs of the
archipelago provided that within such baselines are included the main islands
and an area in which the ratio of the area of the water to the area of the land,
including atolls, is between 1 to 1 and 9 to 1.
2. The length of such baselines shall not exceed 100 nautical miles,
except that up to 3 per cent of the total number of baselines enclosing any
archipelago may exceed that length, up to a maximum length of 125 nautical
miles.
3. The drawing of such baselines shall not depart to any appreciable
extent from the general configuration of the archipelago.
4. Such baselines shall not be drawn to and from low-tide elevations,
unless lighthouses or similar installations which are permanently above sea
level have been built on them or where a low-tide elevation is situated wholly
or partly at a distance not exceeding the breadth of the territorial sea from the
nearest island.
5. The system of such baselines shall not be applied by an archipelagic
State in such a manner as to cut off from the high seas or the exclusive
economic zone the territorial sea of another State.
6. If a part of the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic State lies
between two parts of an immediately adjacent neighbouring State, existing
rights and all other legitimate interests which the latter State has traditionally
exercised in such waters and all rights stipulated by agreement between those
States shall continue and be respected.
7. For the purpose of computing the ratio of water to land under
paragraph l, land areas may include waters lying within the fringing reefs of
islands and atolls, including that part of a steep-sided oceanic plateau which
is enclosed or nearly enclosed by a chain of limestone islands and drying
reefs lying on the perimeter of the plateau.
8. The baselines drawn in accordance with this article shall be shown
on charts of a scale or scales adequate for ascertaining their position.
Alternatively, lists of geographical coordinates of points, specifying the
geodetic datum, may be substituted.