The Polish contiguous zone – the exercise of the coastal state jurisdiction and control

In November 2015 Poland established a contiguous zone and, after more than a year, in January 2017, adopted the regulation on the baselines, an external boundary of the Polish territorial sea and the contiguous zone of the Republic of Poland. After many decades, it was a successful attempt to establish a contiguous zone returning to the concept of the 30’s of the last century. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) recognizes that the coastal State may establish a zone contiguous to its territorial sea that extends to 24 nautical miles from the baselines of the coastal State, known as the contiguous zone, and exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea, or to punish such infringements committed within its territory or territorial sea. This paper presents a few general comments on the Polish contiguous zone taking into account the international roots of that legal institution of the law of the sea, of such importance, also for the security reasons.