Maritime territory is a term used in international law to denote coastal waters which are not Territorial Waters though in immediate contact with the sea. In the case of Territorial Waters, the dominion of the adjacent state is subject to a limitation. Dominion over maritime territory is not subject to any limitation. Thus any strait through which the right of passage of foreign vessels can be forbidden, or bays so land-locked that they cannot be held to form part of any ocean-highway, are maritime territory.
In international law, particularly under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the term "maritime territory" can broadly refer to areas of the sea over which a state exercises sovereignty. However, the specific definition provided in the original text, denoting "coastal waters which are not Territorial Waters though in immediate contact with the sea," more accurately describes what UNCLOS designates as Internal Waters [1]. This distinction is critical because the extent of a coastal state's sovereign rights and the rights of foreign vessels differ significantly between these zones.
