II - International Law of Maritime Delimitation and The Peruvian-Chilean Maritime Dispute
upon which the State’s sovereignty and jurisdiction was recognized. The Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the United States of America in Peru, R. M. Lambert, presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru the reservation made by his country to Supreme Decree 781, emphasizing that: “[…] the Peruvian Decree had declared national sovereignty over the continental shelf and the seas adjacent to the coasts of Peru, beyond the generally accepted limit for territorial waters”54. The reservation made by Great Britain was even more explicit: The action of the Government of Peru […] claiming that sovereignty can be extended upon broad areas of the high seas above the continental shelf, seems to be irreconcilable with any principle accepted in international law, governing the extension of territorial seas heretofore recognized by the Government of Peru or most of the maritime States. In connection therewith, it is permissible to point out that the Proclamation by President Truman in September 1945, while affirming certain claims to control and conserve certain fishing areas adjacent to the United States of America (its coasts), it did not claim any territorial sovereignty on such waters55.
The British Note further stated: While it is thereby recognized that the protection and control of fishery zones and the conservation of the resources of the sea is a legitimate interest of any country within the waters upon which the State projects its territorial jurisdiction, the Government of Her Majesty is firmly pinpointing to the Government of Peru, that it will not recognize territorial jurisdiction beyond the three-mile limit from its coast, nor regarding the British ships performing legitimate tasks in the high seas, they shall not be submitted to any measure adopted by the Government of Peru as a result of the Declaration, without the consent of the Government of Her Majesty56.
The status of international law between 1947 and 1954 with regard to the ocean spaces subject to the jurisdiction of the State and dependent upon lateral delimitation was, thus, both of status quo as of changing trend. Status quo with regard to the recognition of a single zone subject to the State’s sovereignty (territorial sea), no greater than 3 miles; but also changing after the unilateral declarations claiming 12-mile territorial sea, economic jurisdiction and control over the continental shelf, or more ambitiously, the extension of national sovereignty and jurisdiction up to a distance of 200 miles, novel concept for the time and subject to significant opposition. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Instrumentos nacionales e internacionales sobre derecho del mar, Lima, 1971, p. 208. 55 Ibid., p. 216. 56 Ibid., pp. 216-217. 54
45