Regional developments in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the law of the sea : the Mediterranean perspective.

Abstract

The Law of the Sea is embodied in a set of principles and rules regulating a maritime area which spans two-thirds of our planet. Nowadays, when a legal minded individual wants to refer to the Law of the sea, that individual turns to the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with its 150 and over participating states and its 320 articles and annexes. It is a Convention of rules similar to the Charter of the UN in importance promoting not only individual national interest but aiming at a common goal amongst nations of producing a Constitution for the Sea. It has taken up 14 years of preparation and negotiation, which lead to the signing and in certain cases of the non-signing of certain states members of the Convention. Therefore, 14 years of negotiating process life, together with 6 years following the opening for signature and ratification of a Convention have brought about the existence of a body of rules of the Law of the Sea for jurists and non-jurists It is in fact referred to as the New Law of the Sea, ill referred to, maybe, since one can only say that the New Law of the Sea is but a continuation, an updating and a continuous prospering of a regime which regulates our sea, which started not just these past thirty years, but at least a good four hundred years ago. Maybe the term The New Law of the Sea is a misnomer, since in fact in my opinion, it is only a development, an expansion and a progress of the Law of the Sea, due to fast changing exigencies, needs and uses of man.