The Future Maritime Operating Environment and the Role of Naval Power

2.4 Regulation of Ocean Space
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has been called the “constitution of the
sea” and it is the normative/legal framework within which many maritime issues will continue to
be addressed by states. 54 In effect since 1994, UNCLOS seeks to reconcile the traditional
emphasis on the freedom of the seas to which all have access with more recent claims made by
countries to control maritime space. To accomplish this goal, it recognises the demand by
countries for exclusive control over their coastal regions (hence the creation of the 200 nautical
mile wide Exclusive Economic Zones or EEZs) while reasserting the principle of an ocean
commons. (Figure 5 shows the relationship between territorial seas, EEZs and the high seas.)
Ships, including foreign warships and military aircraft, have the formal right of innocent passage
through EEZs, as indeed they do in territorial waters. Maritime countries, however, enjoy
exclusive jurisdiction over the resources found within the waters of their EEZ and on its seabed.
As with any treaty, tensions have arisen over the interpretation of UNCLOS. This can be viewed
as natural, particularly in a system of sovereign states. The pressure for changes in the
interpretation of that agreement is a reflection of the contending interests of the states most
affected. This, too, will continue in coming decades for, as one leading naval theorist has written
that demand for “changes in the law of the sea derive from the manifest increase in the
importance of the sea relative to the land.” 55
Looking forward, countries (presumably most) interested in maritime order will continue to see
international law as both a useful tool to advance their interests and some might even see it as a
common good. Resort to the law will be regarded as an acceptable means for the resolution of
disputes, thereby making a positive contribution to international security. One sees this already.
In recent years, maritime boundary disputes between Peru and Chile, and in the Barents Sea
between Russia and Norway, were peacefully resolved: the former adjudicated by the
International Court of Justice and the latter after nearly 40 years of bilateral negotiations. While
armed conflict can never be excluded as a possibility, reliance on international law will likely be
the most effective mechanism that prevents an escalation of many maritime disputes.
54 For the idea that UNCLOS represents a balance between exclusive and inclusive approaches to the oceans,
see Natalie Klein, Maritime Security and the Law of the Sea (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 3–18.
55 Geoffrey Till, Seapower and the Millennium (Sutton Publishing: Phoenix Mill, 2001), p. 6.
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