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United States Interests in the Law of the Sea Convention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Panel on the Law of Ocean Uses
Affiliation:
Bernard H. Oxman, Rapporteur

Extract

In 1982 the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea adopted a treaty, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, that succeeded in resolving the most fundamental questions of the law of the sea in accordance with three basic principles:

  1. 1. The rules of the law of the sea must fairly balance the respective interests of all states, notably the competing coastal and maritime interests, in a manner that is generally acceptable.

  2. 2. Multilateral negotiations on the basis of consensus replace unilateral claims of right as the principal means for determining that balance.

  3. 3. Compulsory dispute settlement mechanisms should be adopted to interpret, apply, and enforce the balance.

Type
Current Developments
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1994

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References

1 A concept recently launched, claiming for the coastal state “presence” in an area of the high seas beyond its exclusive economic zone in which the state has special interests for economic development and national security. See Francisco Orrego Vicuna, The View of Developing Countries Ten Years after the Signature of the Law of the Sea Convention 18–21, statement delivered at the Law of the Sea Institute’s 26th Annual Conference, Genoa, Italy (June 24, 1992).