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

This continues the JAPAN Forward history series focusing on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It reminisces about the three universal key conferences held in 1958, 1960, and 1973-82. These three UNCLOS conferences remain a primary reference point in understanding the law of the sea in its contemporary form. 

Today, 169 countries and regions are parties to the convention. Recent challenges to maritime boundaries, ownership, and access to marine resources, punctuate the importance of an agreed international framework. Part two of the series focuses on the first of the three conferences, held in Geneva in 1958, that brought us to this point.

Second in the series, Order on the Sea

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

Getting to Geneva, 1958 

The International Law Commission was set up in 1949 when it convened its first session. Subsequently, it held consecutive sessions until its eighth session in 1956. At that time, all the draft provisions adopted by the Commission concerning the law of the sea were recast to constitute a single coordinated and systematic body of rules.

At the same session, the Commission adopted a final draft on the law of the sea. It submitted this as its final report to the General Assembly in 1956 and further recommended that the General Assembly summon an international conference of plenipotentiaries.

Its highly regarded final report covered all provisions of the law of the sea.  Recorded in the UN's Archival Library of International Law, it became the primary foundation for later discussions. Those took place at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea held in Geneva in 1958 and 1960.

Moving Beyond a 1930 Precedent

The League of Nations' 1930 Hague Conference for the Codification of International Law provided a precedent for the 1958 conference. During The Hague Conference, the parties debated the proper breadth of each country's territorial sea. Although it failed to achieve concurrence on a single solution, the conference's report included 13 draft articles. Eventually, these became the basis for further work. 

By 1956, when a final report was submitted to the General Assembly, the member countries and the International Law Commission had waded through multiple drafts concerning different aspects of the law of the sea. The report, however, organized the various provisions into a unified format covering the whole of the law of the sea. 

And so, more than 65 years ago against the backdrop of six prior sessions of the International Law Commission, this report became the main basis for the work of the 1958 Geneva Conference.

A 1958 Geneva Conference Focused on Agreement

By the 1958 Geneva Conference, there was a heightened need for a new and generally acceptable Convention on the Law of the Sea. There was growing awareness among the UN members of the need for a legal order for the seas and oceans. 

It was deciphered that a convention among the parties would help facilitate international communications, including when there were conflicting positions. Furthermore, they sought to establish an institutional basis for sorting out various maritime and resource development issues through codification of the law of the sea. 

The UN Conference on the Law of the Sea met at Geneva from February 24-April 27 1958. Out of 86 participating states, 79 were UN member states. Another seven were members of specialized agencies not belonging to the United Nations. This followed the International Law Commission report during its eighth session (A/CN 4/104), and the General Assembly resolution 1105 (XI) adopted on February 21, 1957.

Employing the above resolution, the parties convened the first UN Conference on the Law of the Sea in Geneva in 1958. Technically, they opened four conventions, each focusing on a general code of law, and an optional protocol for signature. Namely, these were the Conventions on the:

• Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone (CTS, entered into force on 10 September 1964)
• High Seas (CHS, entered into force on 30 September 1962)
• Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the High Seas (CFCLR, entered into force on 20 March 1966)
• Continental Shelf (CCS, entered into force on 10 June 1964)
• Optional Protocol of Signature Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes (OPSD, entered into force on 30 September 1962)

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach

Much has been written about the failure of this conference to agree on an internationally acceptable breadth of the territorial sea. However, the criticism tends to overlook the positive accomplishments of the conference, including adopting the conventions cited above.

The 1958 Conference aimed "to examine the law of the sea, taking account not only of the legal but also of the technical, biological, economic and political aspects of the problem."

According to Tullio Treves, a Judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the proposal of four conventions and a protocol rather than one single all-encompassing convention was meant to facilitate agreement to at least some parts by the broadest possible number of member states.

Next: Part three of "Order on the Sea"

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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.