Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 1 - End of the Old Order

  • Kirsten Sellars
  • Book:
    A ‘Constitution for the Oceans'
    Published online:
    06 February 2025
    Print publication:
    13 February 2025, pp 1-26

  • Summary

    The League’s conference on the codification of international law opened in The Hague in 1930, vested with responsibility for producing (among other things) a treaty on territorial waters. Two major issues gave rise to disagreement: the breadth of territorial waters, with some states arguing for their extension according to local circumstances; and the contiguous zone, with some states claiming limited jurisdiction over customs, immigration, security and fishing zones. The British, as the self-proclaimed guarantors of the freedom of the seas, took a hard line against both ideas, holding out for three-mile territorial waters without a contiguous zone. They could not compel most other states to agree to this – a symptom of their decline as the leading maritime power – but neither could the other states compel the British to accept their positions. This impasse resulted in the committee’s failure to settle either issue, or to produce a treaty.