The law of the sea

The #lawofthesea 

    The Law of the Sea is that part of Public International Law that regulates the rights and duties of States, and possibly other subjects of International Law, with regard to the use and utilization of the seas in time of peace.  In this sense, the Law of the Sea is distinguished from the private maritime law, which regulates the rights and obligations of private persons with regard to maritime matters, such as the carriage of goods and maritime insurance.

     Although some rules of the Law of the Sea can be traced to medieval private compilations governing primarily maritime rights and obligations of merchants and ship-owners in the Mediterranean, the Law of the Sea developed as part of the Law of Nations in the Seventeenth Century with the emergence of the modern national State system.  The classical publicists drew on Roman Law and dealt with the matters of this subject in the natural law tradition.  The best known publication, among the early writings on this subject, is the 1609 Hugo Grotius’ pamphlet “Mar Liberum” (Freedom of the Sea).  

     By the Nineteenth Century, as customary rules gradually produced a body of law based on State practice and consensus, the Law of the Sea, like other areas of Public International Law, developed into a system of customary principles and rules governing the rights and duties of States, mostly in the territorial sea and the high seas.

     During the Nineteenth Century and the period before the Second World War, several unsuccessful attempts were made to codify the customary law of the sea.  After the Second World War, several conferences were held for the objective of codifying the various aspects of the Law of the Sea.  The first conference was the First United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (#UNCLOS I), known as the 1958 Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea, which led to the conclusion of four conventions: (1) The Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone; (2) The Convention on the High Seas; (3) The Convention on the Continental Shelf; and (4) The Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the High Seas.  An Optional Protocol on the Compulsory Settlement of Dispute was signed. 

     The 1958 Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea constitutes the first major codification of the Law of the Sea.  Most of the provisions of the first two conventions, and some of the provisions of the Convention on the Continental Shelf, are a codification of customary law; while the others are a mixture of codification and progressive development of International Law as understood by the International Law Commission.  Thus, although the conventions are binding only on States parties to them, many of their provisions can be used as evidence of customary law against States not parties to them. All these four conventions are still in force, but for a limited number of States; the United States of America is among those States since it has not yet ratified the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea.

     The 1958 Geneva Conference failed to reach agreement on some questions, particularly on the width of the territorial sea and rights of coastal States in the areas of the high sea adjacent to their territorial seas.  To deal with such questions, the Second United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS II), which is known as the 1960 Geneva Convention on the Law of the Sea, was convened; but this Conference failed to achieve its objectives. This reason, in addition to the dissatisfaction of some States with various rules laid down in the 1958 Convention and the technological, economic and political developments since its conclusion, led to the convene of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, 1973-1982 (UNCLOS III).  This Conference led to the conclusion of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea on December, 1982, which entered into force on November 16, 1994.

     The 1982 Convention prevails over the four 1958 Conventions as among the States parties to it.  It deals with most of the issues related to the Sea.  Among these issues are:

 (1)     Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone;

(2)     Straits Used for International Navigation;

(3)     Archipelagic States;

(4)     Exclusive Economic Zone;

(5)     Continental Shelf;

(6)     High Seas;

(7)     Regime of Islands;

(8)     Enclosed or Semi-Enclosed Seas;

(9)     Rights of Access of Land-Locked States to and from the Sea and Freedom of Transit;

  (10)   The Area;

  (11)   Protection and Preservation of the Marine Environment;

  (12)   Marine Scientific Research;

  (13)   Development and Transfer of Marine Technology; and 

  (14)   Settlement of Disputes.