A New Law Of The Sea For The Caribbean

In 1982 the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was signed by a number of countries. For many smaller countries, such as the island states of the Caribbean, the significance of this major law reform movement became apparent in terms of expanded economic benefits, e.g., expanded fishery resources and offshore energy supplies. However, the responsibilities of expanded ocean jurisdiction also became apparent, as did the geopolitical controversies surrounding it. This new volume in the Lecture Notes on Coastal and Estuarine Studies presents the reader with the results and synthesis of a major study undertaken by the Ocean Studies Programme of Dalhousie University in the Eastern Caribbean on the New Law of the Sea with special attention to marine pollution, coastal zone management, international law, marine transportation, maritime boundary delineation and ocean development.

The Law of the Sea in the Caribbean discusses the evolution and growth of the law of the sea in the Caribbean and its contribution to the sustainable development of Caribbean States.

In 1982 the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was signed by a number of countries. For many smaller countries, such as the island states of the Caribbean, the significance of this major law reform movement became apparent in terms of expanded economic benefits, e.g., expanded fishery resources and offshore energy supplies. However, the responsibilities of expanded ocean jurisdiction also became apparent, as did the geopolitical controversies surrounding it. This new volume in the Lecture Notes on Coastal and Estuarine Studies presents the reader with the results and synthesis of a major study undertaken by the Ocean Studies Programme of Dalhousie University in the Eastern Caribbean on the New Law of the Sea with special attention to marine pollution, coastal zone management, international law, marine transportation, maritime boundary delineation and ocean development.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 entered into force on 16 November 1994. Since this date a single binding instrument has regulated the rights and duties of States at sea and regarding the sea. New concepts, such as the exclusive economic zone, archipelagic waters, transit passage through straits, and the International Seabed Area, are now fully recognized. The fifteen member States of the European Union are a significant sample for analyzing the practice of States, or at least that of the Western industrialized States, as regards the law of the sea. They include major and small maritime powers, coastal and land-locked States, States with coasts on the Atlantic Ocean and States with coasts on semi-enclosed seas such as the Baltic and the Mediterranean, States with and without involvement in deep seabed mining and States with different interests as regards fisheries. The fact that they all belong to the European Union is a very important common feature, which amply justifies the choice made to study them together. The book's aim is to give, through essays prepared by well-known specialists, a detailed survey of the attitudes and practice concerning the law of the sea of the member States of the European Union and of the European Community as such. The common positions of the member States and the results of their coordinated action also emerge from these essays. The fact that the member States and the European Community are now actively engaged in the process of becoming parties to the Law of the Sea Convention is certainly a major contribution to the consolidation of the Convention as a universal instrument, or at least as an instrument widely ratified by States of all continents and economic and political interests.

The fact that the Montego Bay Convention has been only ratified by 37 States at present and that it will be some time before the 60 ratifications required by Article 308 are achieved has not prevented states from acting in accordance with the rules drawn up by the Conference. Close on one hundred states have established either exclusive economic zones broadly modelled on Part V or 200-nautical-mile fishery zones and drawn on the principles laid down for exploiting living resources. Although these laws have been formulated unilaterally by states, international custom, since the judgement by the International Court of Justice in the Fisheries Case of 18 December 1951, is derived from concordant national rules. This shift began even before the Conference ended, and has been consolidated since then. Moreover, the régime governing the sea-bed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction defined by Part XI, which was the stumbling block of the Conference, is subject to transitional arrangements on the basis of two resolutions adopted in the Conference's Final Act, one providing for the establishment of a Preparatory Commission and the other on the preliminary activities of pioneer investors. This two-volume work, an earlier edition of which appeared in French, has been written by a team of experts of international renown. It presents an analysis of the Convention with an additional Chapter on the legal régime governing underwater archaeological and historical objects.