According to the United Nations and international law, the territorial waters of most countries extend how many miles out to sea from their shorelines?

The globally recognized limit for a nation's maritime border is a relatively modern standard, established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This landmark international agreement, finalized in 1982, formally set the maximum breadth of a country's territorial sea at 12 nautical miles (about 13.8 statute miles) from its coastal baseline. Within this zone, the coastal nation exercises full sovereignty, meaning its national laws apply just as they do on land. The only major exception is the right of "innocent passage" for foreign ships, which allows for peaceful transit.

This 12-mile standard replaced a much older, informal custom known as