Asserting Rights Beyond Borders: Jamaica's Path to Energy Independence and Economic Development

• Published on August 2, 2015 

Silbert S. Barrett

Sustainable Strategist for Funding Major Infrastructure at Brittenwoods International

According to one prominent researcher and scientist on Oceanography; "You massaged the facts in your article about the world deepest hydrothermal vent - it is in Cayman's EEZ not Jamaica's. I saw the applications to the Cayman Government from the University of Southampton and other groups including Woodes Hole in the USA who dove on those sites. Not Jamaica's but Cayman's EEZ. I would appreciate it if you corrected the error."

For those stakeholders who have gone ahead in recognizing Cayman's Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) rights, without consulting and getting joint agreements from both the Cayman and Jamaican governments, you are not abiding by International Laws relating to EEZ and Continental Shelf Delimitation.

I am not a lawyer, but in reality, I had not done anything wrong as according to Libya vs Tunisia and Canada vs the USA; recent cases in international law where political boundaries and geography are not the only consideration in determining disputes regarding sea-bed resources.

Emerging as principles and rules of law within the doctrine of Continental Shelf is the notion of equity and distributive justice "Equitable Principles of Maritime Boundary Delimitation through distributive justice" is the underlying arguments in recent international law cases on which Jamaica has a vested interest in asserting for its energy independence and economic development.

Base on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),  that maritime zone "beyond and adjacent to its territorial sea that extends seaward up to 200 nm from its baselines (or out to a maritime boundary with another coastal State). Within its EEZ, a coastal State has: (a) sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources, whether living or nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and the superjacent waters and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents, and winds; (b) jurisdiction as provided for in international law with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations, and structures, marine scientific research, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment, and (c) other rights and duties provided for under international law.

Jamaica can then asserts its rights and interest in the Cayman Trough both on the premise of the EEZ and well as the doctrine of Continental Shelf for indeed the Mid-Cayman Spread lines within the Caribbean Plate which is a geological extension of the island of Jamaica, unlike the island of Cayman which is on the North American Plate. What is at stake is the economic development of the Caribbean Region and the rescue of the Jamaican economy.