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United States claimed a three-nautical mile territorial sea. 31 This claim was made in the contextof asserting the rights of the United States as a neutral State. 32Coastal States often make specific maritime claims, but the United States does notrecognize those maritime claims that are not in conformity with customary international law, asreflected in the LOS Convention. 3313.2.2.3 Archipelagic Waters. An archipelagic State’s sovereignty extends tocertain waters enclosed by archipelagic baselines drawn in accordance with the LOSConvention. 34An “archipelago” means a group of islands, including parts of islands, interconnectingwater, and other natural features that are so closely interrelated that they form an intrinsic31 Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, Letter to the British Minister Mr. Hammond (Nov. 8, 1793), I MOORE’SDIGEST 702-03 (“The President of the United States thinking that before it shall be finally decided to what distancefrom our sea shores the territorial protection of the United States shall be exercised, it will be proper to enter intofriendly conferences and explanations with the powers chiefly interested in the navigation of the seas on our coasts,and relying that convenient occasions may be taken for these hereafter, finds it necessary in the mean time, to fixprovisionally on some distance for the present government of these questions. … Reserving, however, the ultimateextent of this for future deliberation, the President gives instructions to the officers acting under his authority toconsider those heretofore given them as restrained for the present to the distance of one sea league or threegeographical miles from the sea-shores. This distance can admit of no opposition, as it is recognized by treatiesbetween some of the powers with whom we are connected in commerce and navigation, and is as little, or less, thanis claimed by any of them on their own coasts.”).32 See, e.g., Douglas W. Kmiec, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Legal Issues Raised by the ProposedPresidential Proclamation to Extend the Territorial Sea, Oct. 4, 1988, 12 OPINIONS OF THE OFFICE OF LEGALCOUNSEL 238, 244 (1988) (“The primary example, of course, is the first claim of a three-mile territorial sea made onbehalf of the United States by then-Secretary of State Jefferson in 1793. France, Great Britain, and Spain -- all ofwhich held territory in North America -- were engaged in maritime hostilities off our Atlantic coast, an extension ofwars ongoing in Europe. As part of an effort to undermine our policy of neutrality, France pressured us to state theextent of our territorial sea.”); United States v. California, 332 U.S. 19, 33 note 16 (1947) (“[S]hortly after webecame a nation our statesmen became interested in establishing national dominion over a definite marginal zone toprotect our neutrality. Largely as a result of their efforts, the idea of a definite three-mile belt in which an adjacentnation can, if it chooses, exercise broad, if not complete dominion, has apparently at last been generally acceptedthroughout the world, although as late as 1876 there was still considerable doubt in England about its scope andeven its existence.”).33 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MANUAL 2005.1-M, Maritime Claims Reference, 2 (Jun. 23, 2005) (“The maritimeclaims references in this Manual represent claims made by the coastal nations. Some of the claims are inconsistentwith international law. The United States does not recognize those maritime claims that are not in conformity withcustomary international law, as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention. Examples includeexcessive straight baseline claims, territorial sea claims in excess of 12 nautical miles (nm), and other claims thatunlawfully impede freedom of navigation and overflight.”).34 Consider LOS CONVENTION art. 49(1) (“The sovereignty of an archipelagic State extends to the waters enclosedby the archipelagic baselines drawn in accordance with article 47, described as archipelagic waters, regardless oftheir depth and distance from the coast.”); LOS CONVENTION art. 47 (“An archipelagic State may draw straightarchipelagic baselines joining the outermost posts of the outermost islands and drying reefs of the archipelagoprovided that within such baselines are included the main islands and an area in which the ratio of the area of thewater to the area of the land, including atolls, is between 1 to 1 and 9 to 1.”).865