588
Opinion of the Court
Contiguous Zone, Apr. 29, 1958, 15 U. S. T. 1607, T. I. A. S. No. 5639, for purposes of the SLA, explaining that such a result would establish "a single coastline for both the administration of the Submerged Lands Act and the conduct of our future international relations (barring an unexpected change in the rules established by the Convention)." 381 U. S., at 165. Because construction of an artificial port facility will, in certain circumstances, cause a change in the United States' international seaward boundary,10 Alaska contends that the goal of a "single" coastline will be frustrated if we permit the Secretary to establish, in effect, one boundary for international purposes and a different one for domestic purposes.
As the United States maintains, however, our decision in California did not specify a "goal" of achieving a "single" coastline. Rather, our purpose was to give the SLA a "definiteness and stability." Such aims, of course, can be achieved without creating perfect symmetry between the Convention and the Act. Stability in a boundary line is achieved when the Secretary decides whether a State must disclaim its rights to accreted submerged lands caused by artificial additions just as surely as it is with ordinary coastline determinations occasioned by natural changes. The State intimates that problems relating to fishing, salvage operations, and criminal jurisdiction will result from "[u]nstable and unpredictable administrative rules [that] will create confusion in many areas." Reply Brief for Alaska 6. Such speculative concerns, however, arise only when the 3-mile
10 Under international law, artificial alterations to the coastline will extend a country's boundaries for purposes of determining the territorial sea and exclusive economic zone. Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, Apr. 29, 1958, 15 U. S. T. 1607, T. I. A. S. No. 5639, art. 8; Brief for United States 25, n. 6 (stating that "[t]he United States has not ratified [the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea], but has recognized that its baseline provisions reflect customary international law").
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