Order on the Sea: A 'Planet of Oceans' In the UN's Focus

This continues the JAPAN Forward history series focusing on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The world was undergoing major political transformations as its three universal conferences of 1958, 1960, and 1973-82 took place.

With 169 parties to the convention, achieving an equitable compromise on its terms was not easy. Part five of the series introduces the efforts of the pivotal third conference to agree on basic precepts of the law of the sea.  

Fifth in the series

First part Order on the Sea: Tracing the Genesis of UNCLOS

Second part Order on the Sea: Finding Early UNCLOS Unity One Piece at a Time

Third part: Order On the Sea: 1958 Geneva Conference Tackles Marine Boundaries

Fourth part: Order on the Sea: The Second UN Conference Failures and Achievements

A Landmark Conference

The third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea spanned nine long years from 1973 to 1982. It was viewed as a test of constructive international cooperation in an increasingly interdependent world where cooperation was extremely vital. 

In December 1970, the UN General Assembly decided to convene a third conference in 1973. Meanwhile, its committee on the Peaceful Uses of the Sea Bed and the Ocean Floor beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction was tasked with carrying out preparations. 

Accordingly, the first session of this conference in 1973 dealt with organizational matters. Substantive work began in 1974 in its second session, following the UN General Assembly's mandate in Resolution 3029 (1972).

The third conference faced an enormous task. First, it was obliged to rearrange and codify existing legal norms on the law of the sea. It then set out to forge agreement on new rules which were certain to have had considerable economic and political consequences for every nation. 

Furthermore, the third conference earned its status as a landmark. It was the first-ever comprehensive convention covering all aspects of the sea and its resources. 

In all, there were 11 sessions with a total of 160 participating nation-states and regions held from 1973 to 1982. This was quite a departure from the first conference held in 1958, which dealt only with limited aspects of the issue.

Existing Norms and New Agreements

A 1983 paper titled "The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea: What Was Accomplished?" praised the conference's accomplishments. It lauded the conference's codification of the existing international law and its additional innovative concepts. Published by the Duke University School of Law, the paper also argued that the conference's outcome provided greater international equity for developing countries. 

The advance in technology pertaining to offshore exploration of oil and gas further provides a relevant example.  Coastal states had initially demanded an extension of their rights beyond the continental shelf to the continental slope, to the continental rise, and even to the ridges beyond the rise. While that didn't happen, progress was made nevertheless.

It was in the above backdrop that the third conference began its substantive work in Caracas, Venezuela. After much laboring, it reached a consensus on the rules of procedure. Significantly, however, the differing viewpoints between poor and rich nation-states were clearly brought into the open without any agreement. 

During the general debate, 110 states and eight international organizations addressed the conference. Most participating states were in favor of a maximum breadth of the territorial sea of 12 nautical miles. Many, however, had various additional requirements.

Preference for Consensus

Interestingly, the convention adopted out of this third conference came through a unique process. Although the Rules of Procedure of the conference envisaged voting, the conference never had to resort to voting on any substantive matter. Until the last day. Up to that point, aware that the stakes of the participating countries were so substantial and high, decision-making by consensus was preferred. 

Ironically, it was on the last day of the conference that the United States asked for a vote.

A new Informal Composite Negotiating Text (ICNT) was released at the end of the sixth session in May-July 1977. It reorganized the material of earlier texts into a comprehensive draft treaty form. 

However, there were certain significant and substantive changes. Provisions regarding the regimes of internal waters, the territorial sea, and the contiguous zone were not markedly different from those in the 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone. There were four new elements, however.

Tackling the Political and Economic Questions

Significantly, the four new elements of the ICNT of 1977 represented major compromise and change. They were:

• First, the maximum permissible breadth of the territorial sea was fixed at 12 nautical miles. [ICNT, Article 3.]
• Second, the regime of passage through straits used for international navigation was dealt with as a separate and distinct matter. [ICNT, Part III] Except for specified types of straits [ICNT, Article 45] it was not the same as "innocent passage" on the territorial seas and certain internal waters.
• Third, the meaning of "innocent passage," regulatory rights of the coastal state, and the duties of the flag state regarding innocent passage were elaborated in greater detail.
• Fourth, the maximum permissible breadth of the contiguous zone for customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary purposes was extended from 12 to 24 nautical miles from the baseline.

By far, the third UN Conference was the most significant and far-reaching of all United Nations' undertakings. It considered the broad array of political and economic questions. It was also a necessary process before an agreement could be reached for a new convention on the law of the sea. 

Quite fittingly, Swedish writer Rolf Edberg insightfully remarked that as land creatures drawing principal nourishment from the islands of the world oceans, and as the only water planet in our solar system, the name of our planet should have been Ocean, rather than Earth.

Next: The upcoming chapter of this JAPAN Forward history series 'Order on the Sea' will delve into the universal adoption of UNCLOS in 1982 as the nucleus of ensuring international law and order in the oceans. It will also consider the rising challenges that revisionist states pose to the existing global order on the seas.

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Author: Dr Monika Chansoria

Follow Dr Chansoria's "Order on the Sea" series and find her column "All Politics is Global" on JAPAN Forward, and X (formerly Twitter). The views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organization with which she is affiliated.