Law Of The Sea

The law of the sea is defined as the “totality of rules of international law which determine the status of maritime spaces and establish a regime for activities taking place in these spaces”.
This legal branch deals with maritime spaces as traffic routes as well as fish reserves and its jurisdiction includes the seabed and subsoil as well as natural resources they contain. Of customary origin, the law of the sea is one of the most ancient branches of international law.
Seas are defined as naturally and freely interconnected saline water spaces around the globe, (as opposed to fresh inland waters). Seas are spaces of exchange and confrontation and are economically and strategically important for States. This entails a need for a legal regime governing the management of these spaces.

Since the antiquity, jurists are concerned with the status of maritime spaces. The latter constitute in fact a simple and quick transport route for people as well as goods and is an important source of revenue for coast dwellers of riparian States. Until the 17th century, the absence of a legal regime and diverging claims of States to maritime spaces resulted in the sea being a space where every State was able to act at its whim. This required thus the elaboration of a legal regime for these coveted spaces. Progressively, the conviction gained ground that conflicting territorial claims were harming rapidly increasing commercial interests. Yet two differing basic principles could be envisaged: Should maritime spaces be divided among States and subjected to their sovereignty? Or should one opt for a regime of freedom of the seas? The latter was proposed for the first time during the 17th century by Hugo Grotius and finally prevailed. Oceans and seas were thus considered to be spaces open to everyone and free from any attachment to State territories, with the exception of a 3 miles strip counted from the shore, which was considered to be a part of the costal State’s territory. The law of the sea started thus developing based on a compromise between the freedom of the seas and the maritime extension of territorial sovereignty.
Only during the twentieth century that the proliferation of competing territorial claims on the seas pushed the international community to develop a common system to ease tensions between states.

During the first United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS I), held in Geneva from 24 February to 27 April 1958, the law of the sea is codified for the first time. Four conventions have been adopted:

Despite a low number of ratifications, they enter into force between 1962 and 1966.
A second conference on the Law of the Sea was established in 1966 but covered only the case of the territorial sea.

A third conference on the law of the sea (UNCLOS III) is held under the auspices of the UN from 1973 to 1982 in Montego Bay (Jamaica). It adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The convention, which includes nine annexes, has entered into force on the 16th November 1994 after ratification by 60 States. It revisits and summarizes the law of the sea as codified in the Geneva Conventions of 1958 and further develops provisions regarding maritime zones that have been defined earlier, such as the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the high seas and the continental shelf. In addition, it develops provisions regarding the following newly defined zones:

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea creates a legal framework within which all activities relating to seas and oceans are regulated.  It also establishes rights and obligations for States parties relating to navigation, the use of living and mineral resources, the protection and preservation of the marine environment as well as scientific research, within all zones defined by the Convention.

The convention also establishes an International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, an independent jurisdictional body based in Hamburg. The Tribunal’s function is to settle disputes that may arise from issues related to the interpretation and the application of UNCLOS. It can be seized by States parties to the Convention as well as other entities (States and international organisations which are not parties to the Convention as well as individuals and legal entities) whenever the Convention provides for such a case. In addition, the Tribunal can be seized if another agreement establishes the competence of the Tribunal.

This general regime established by the Convention of 1982 is completed by a multitude of international treaties that deal with more specific issues within the law of the sea. Examples are conventions on biological diversity or on the protection of underwater cultural heritage. Some of these treaties apply on a global, other only on a regional level. These conventions aim at elaborating a more complete legal framework covering fields such as the protection of the marine environment, the management and exploitation of natural resources, the delimitation of maritime spaces, the regulation of navigation and fishing or the prevention and progressive elimination of marine pollution.

A branch of law in constant evolution, the law of the sea constitutes nowadays a complete legal framework adequate for regulating all issues related to maritime spaces.