The new political geography of the sea

Abstract

The political geography of the sea may be defined as that portion of the Law of the Sea which has a spatial or territorial component, including such matters as the territorial sea and the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, international straits, the regimes of islands and archipelagos, freedom of transit for land-locked states, deep seabed mining and protection and preservation of the marine environment. It also includes larger issues not formally part of the Law of the Sea, such as the links between the Law of the Sea and Antarctica, and military uses of the sea. The new Law of the Sea (hence the new political geography of the sea) is the latest stage in a long evolution traceable to the ancient Greeks and Romans but accelerating since the 17th century. The United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea produced in 1958 four conventions essentially codifying the existing Law of the Sea, including the new continental shelf doctrine. They were followed by the 1965 UN Convention on Transit Trade of Land-locked States. All soon proved inadequate, unacceptable or obsolescent. The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III, 1973–1982) produced a new single, comprehensive convention embodying nearly all old and new aspects of the Law of the Sea. This and related matters deserve much greater attention from political geographers than they have received thus far.