On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 03:15:28 +0000, Charles Ellson
wrote:

On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:32:25 +0000, mcp wrote:

On Mon, 13 Jan 2014 08:02:44 +0000, Graeme Wall
wrote:

On 13/01/2014 03:11, Charles Ellson wrote:

-All the oil tax revenues will be lost (over 90% of the oil is in
Scottish waters by international law and RotUK could not change that
without Scotland's agreement).

Have you checked with the Shetland's yet? Most of the oil is in their
waters.

Very little of it is within their12 mile limit which is all they would
be entitled to if, as you are suggesting, they became a foriegn
enclave in another countries waters.

That stopped in the 1980s IIRC. The Exclusive Economic Zone of a state
extends to 200NM from land (the position of inland boundaries is
ignored) unless that clashes/overlaps with another country when the
default decider becomes whichever country is closest to the location
in question. Variations can be made by mutual arrangement of the
countries concerned (as might be done if e.g. a channel is impeded by
submerged natural obstructions on one side) but in the event of
dispute International Law (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea etc.)
imposes the default.
Shetland's "very little" would actually be quite a good size when
compared with England's in e.g. :-
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ottish_eez.PNG
http://www.publications.parliament.u.../341/34109.gif

That only applies if Shetland is fully independant, if fUK hang on to
Shetland then the special rules on foreign enclaves applies. See the
map near the end of http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/12/1/505.pdf