Maritime Areas (Amendment) Act No.7 of 2019

BELIZE: MARITIME AREAS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2019 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS 1. Short title. 2. Amendment of section 3. 3. Amendment of section 7. Maritime Areas No. 7] Maritime Areas 47 AN ACT to amend the Maritime Areas Act, Chapter 11 of the Substantive Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 2011, by repealing the provisions of it that had the declared purpose of providing a framework to seek a negoti ated definitive agreement on territorial differences with the Republic of Guatemala, and leaving in force the provisions of it that define the maritime areas of Belize on the basis of international law. (Gazetted 22nd May, 2019). BE IT ENACTED, by and with the advice and consent of the House of Representatives and Senate of Belize and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as the MARITIME AREAS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2019, Short title. No. 7 of 2019 I assent, (SIR COLVILLE N. YOUNG) Governor-General 22nd May, 2019 and shall be read and construed as one with the Maritime Areas Act, which is hereinafter referred to as the principal Act. 2. The principal Act is amended by repealing all of section 3 except the following, which shall hereafter constitute the entirety of section 3 – 48 Maritime Areas [No. 7 CAP. 11. Printed in Belize by the Government Printer #1 Power Lane, Belmopan, Belize, C.A. Amendment of section 7. “Territorial sea. Amendment of section 3. 3. (1) The territorial sea of Belize comprises those areas of the sea having, as their inner limits, the baseline of the territorial sea and, as their outer limits, a line measured seaward from that baseline, every point of which is 12 nautical miles from the nearest point of that baseline. (2) Wherever the equidistance line between Belize and an adjacent State is less than 12 nautical miles from the nearest point of the baseline of the territorial sea, the delimitation of the territorial sea shall, if possible, be effected by agreement between Belize and the adjacent State; but to the extent that no such agreement is effected, that equidistance line shall constitute the outer limits of the territorial sea”. 3. The principal Act is amended in section 7 by repealing sub-sections (3) and (4).