Article 33 UNCLOS

UNCLOS Article 33 creates the contiguous zone, a band that may extend up to 24 nautical miles from the baselines from which the territorial sea is measured. Within it the coastal state may exercise the control needed to prevent and punish infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws committed within its territory or territorial sea. The zone confers enforcement competence over these four matters only, not full sovereignty; it sits beyond the 12-mile territorial sea and overlaps the exclusive economic zone.