FRONT MATTER.PMD - International Seabed Authority

Foreword Contents
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It finally settles the breadth of the territorial sea at 12 nautical miles, with a guaranteed
right of passage for international navigation in those waters; it ensures
unhampered passage of vessels and aircraft through and over archipelagic waters and
vital straits used for international navigation around the world; it secures for coastal
States resource and environmental jurisdiction in a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic
zone without limiting other legitimate activities in that zone by the international
community; it imposes a duty on all States to ensure, through proper conservation and
management measures, the long-term sustainable use of living resources; it provides
for an extended continental shelf jurisdiction, combining scientific and geological criteria
with distance criteria for determining precisely its outer limit and makes provision
for the sharing of revenues from the resources of the shelf beyond the exclusive economic
zone; it guarantees access to and from the sea for land-locked States; it provides
for a regime for archipelagic States; it establishes an innovative regime for the development
of the mineral resources of the deep seabed which is the common heritage of
mankind, and from which eventually mankind as a whole is to benefit; it sets out rules
for the conduct of marine scientific research; it contains the most comprehensive rules
for the protection and preservation of the marine environment and imposes a duty on
all States to protect the oceans from all sources of pollution; and it promotes peaceful
settlement of disputes by establishing mechanisms and procedures for compulsory
settlement of disputes arising from the interpretation and application of the provisions
of the Convention.
Thus the Convention has established certainty in the international law of the sea
in place of the chaos that preceded it. In reviewing the old law and revising or replacing
it where necessary, and by introducing new concepts and norms to meet the current
needs of the international community, the Convention has revolutionized the international
law of the sea. It did so through painstaking negotiation on each important issue
and through the process of consensus building.
The success of the Convention is determined not only by the number of States
Parties – which is already remarkable and beyond all expectations – but also by its
tangible achievements. The fundamental provisions of the Convention are consistently
and uniformly applied in State practice. This is self-evident from a careful examination
of the practice of States in all parts of the world. Those few States who have not
become parties so far have certain specific difficulties peculiar to them. These are
either internal constitutional problems or bilateral issues which cannot be resolved
through a global treaty. On the other hand, in practice, most of these States recognize
that the Convention reflects the current international law of the sea. Indeed, the Convention
is recognized as the pre-eminent source of international law of the sea by
States, the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the
Sea and other judicial or arbitral bodies dealing with marine-related issues and has
become the basis for settlement of disputes on marine-related matters.
The Convention has changed the political geography of the world by enclosing
large areas of the oceans under the national jurisdiction of sovereign States. With the
near-universal acceptance of the Convention, the problem today is not that there is no
legal framework for ocean governance but rather how States should act in the discharge
of their responsibilities under the Convention and in the exercise of the rights
and duties ascribed to them for ocean governance.
It is important to understand that the Convention is not a static instrument. It
provides a basic framework for the conduct of relations among States on maritime