(a) The Constitution of the State of North Carolina, adopted in 1868, having provided in Article I, Sec. 34, that the “limits and boundaries of the State shall be and remain as they now are,” and the eastern limit and boundary of the State of North Carolina on the Atlantic seaboard having always been, since the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain in 1783 and the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, one marine league eastward from the Atlantic seashore, measured from the extreme low-water mark, the eastern boundary of the State of North Carolina is hereby declared to be fixed as it has always been at one marine league eastward from the seashore of the Atlantic Ocean bordering the State of North Carolina, measured from the extreme low-water mark of the Atlantic Ocean seashore aforesaid.

(b) The State of North Carolina shall continue as it always has to  exercise jurisdiction over the territory within the littoral waters and ownership of the lands under the same within the boundaries of the State, subject only to the jurisdiction of the federal government over navigation within such territorial waters.

(c) The Governor and the Attorney General are hereby directed to take all such action as may be found appropriate to defend the jurisdiction of the State over its littoral waters and the ownership of the lands beneath the same. (1947, c. 1031, ss. 1-3; 1969, c. 541, s. 1.)