The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also known as the Convention on the Law of the Sea or the Law of the Sea, is an international agreement that emerged from the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), held between 1973 and 1982. The Convention on the Law of the Sea defines the rights and obligations of nations with respect to their use of the world`s oceans and establishes guidelines for business, the environment and the management of natural marine resources. The 1982 Convention replaced the 1958 Four Treaties Convention on the High Seas. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea entered into force in 1994, a year after Guyana became the 60th country to ratify the treaty. [1] As of June 2016[updated], 167 countries and the European Union had acceded to the Convention. It is not clear to what extent the Convention codifies customary international law. When quoting a judgment, opinion or decision of the ICJ, quote the reports of judgments, opinions and orders to the official rapporteur; Abbreviation: ICJ Rep. When citing UN documents, provide as much information as possible to help the reader find the cited source. Also be consistent in your citation style. [2] Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, 14,316 – 14,317; Melissa Shella, «Citing the Charter of the United Nations,» APA Style Blog, May 23, 2013, blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/05/citing-the-charter-of-the-united-nations.html. The Convention introduced a number of provisions. The main topics covered were boundary fixing, navigation, archipelago status and transit regimes, exclusive economic zones (EEZs), continental shelf jurisdiction, deep-sea mining, exploitation regime, protection of the marine environment, scientific research and dispute settlement. Official records: If you are citing minutes of meetings, resolutions, resolutions or reports of a major United Nations body or subsidiary, cite official documents, which also include supplements and appendices.
UNCLOS replaces the old concept of «freedom of the seas» of the 17th century. Below are references to some frequently cited documents. If you do not know the symbol of the United Nations document for a particular publication you wish to cite, the United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBISNET) provides a catalogue of United Nations documents and publications indexed by the United Nations Library Dag Hammarskjold. This is another useful online resource for information on citations. From 1982 to 1990, the United States accepted everything but Part XI as customary international law, while trying to establish an alternative regime for the exploitation of deep seabed minerals. An agreement has been reached with other seabed mining countries and licences have been granted to four international consortia. At the same time, the Preparatory Commission was set up to prepare for the possible entry into force of the applicants` claims recognized by the signatories to the Convention. Overlaps between the two groups have been resolved, but a decline in demand for minerals from the seabed has made the seabed regime much less relevant. In addition, the decline of socialism and the fall of communism in the late 1980s removed much of the support for some of the most controversial provisions of Part XI.
In 1967, only 25 nations still used the old 3 miles (4.8 km)[8], while 66 countries had set a territorial limit of 12 nautical miles (22 km)[9] and eight a limit of 200 nautical miles (370 km). As of May 28, 2008 [Update], only two countries will use the 3-mile (4.8 km) border: Jordan and Palau. [10] This border is also used on certain Australian islands, an area of Belize, certain Japanese straits, certain areas of Papua New Guinea and certain British overseas territories such as Gibraltar. [11] At the beginning of the 20th century. In the twentieth century, some countries expressed a desire to broaden national demands: to include mineral resources, to protect fish stocks and to provide the means to implement pollution control […].