Law of the Sea Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The law of the sea defines the rights and responsibilities of states in the ocean. Every society has a law of the sea, as certain norms emerge regarding the relationship between water and land. The modern law of the sea, however, owes much of its legacy to Early Modern Europe, when states began to designate coastal waters-typically defined as three nautical miles from the coast-as their territory (one nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles or 1.852 kilometers). During this period, the norm also emerged that the high seas-the ocean beyond territorial waters-could not be controlled by any state.

A more recent stimulus for the modern law of the sea occurred in 1945, when the United States asserted a right to manage “fisheries conservation zones” adjacent to its territorial waters and a right to the mineral resources of its continental shelf. Although the United States was not claiming these adjacent waters as national territory, the proclamations encouraged other countries to pass legislation that came much closer to incorporating adjacent waters and seabed into the territory of the state. This could potentially endanger the “freedom of the seas” norm that had prevailed beyond the three nautical mile limit and that was crucial for global maritime commerce and military activities.

In response, the United Nations (UN) convened Conferences on the Law of the Sea in 1958, 1960, and 1973, eventually leading to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was signed in 1982 and went into effect in 1994. The Convention divides the ocean into zones: From the coastline out to 12 nautical miles is a country’s Territorial Sea. A state can largely control what occurs there, although it must allow passage to other states’ “innocent” vessels. An exception to this rule is made for international straits that are fewer than 24 nautical miles wide. High Seas freedoms prevail in these straits. In other words, even if a coastal state thinks that a foreign ship’s intention is not “innocent” it must let the ship pass through the strait.

From 12 to 200 nautical miles from the coast is a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The waters and seabed of the EEZ are not state territory; High Seas freedoms of navigation prevail there. However, a coastal state has exclusive rights to manage and extract living and nonliving resources from its EEZ. Beyond 200 nautical miles, coastal states have no special authority. High Seas freedoms of navigation prevail and resources are designated “the common heritage of mankind.”

The Convention on the Law of the Sea does not mandate specific environmental conservation measures. Rather, it establishes the level of authority that states have in various zones of the sea, thereby establishing a framework onto which unilateral legislation and multilateral treaties and conventions can be implemented.

Bibliography:

Robin R. Churchill and Vaughan Lowe, The Law of the Sea, 3rd ed. (Juris Publishing, 1999);
John Colombos, The International Law of the Sea, 6th ed. (David McKay, 1967);
Daniel P. O’Connell, The International Law of the Sea (Clarendon, 1992);
Philip Steinberg, The Social Construction of the Ocean (Cambridge University Press, 2001).