Certain islands have an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around them, that is, an area within which the state governing the island has special rights to exploit marine resources. In some cases, disputes between nations have arisen regarding the validity of zones that have been declared.
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Ongoing conflicts
Solved conflicts
Two such disputes have been resolved by decisions of international tribunals. In 1999, following the Hanish Islands conflict, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that the EEZs of Yemen and Eritrea should be demarcated equidistantly between the mainlands of the two nations, without taking account of sovereignty over the islands. In 2009, in a dispute between Romania and Ukraine over Snake Island, the UN International Court of Justice decided that Snake Island has no EEZ beyond 12 nautical miles of its own land.