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7 - The Law of the Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2025

By
Yoshifumi Tanaka
General editor
Randall Lesaffer
Edited by
Robert Kolb  and
Momchil Milanov
Randall Lesaffer
Affiliation:
KU Leuven and Tilburg University
Robert Kolb
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Momchil Milanov
Affiliation:
International Court of Justice
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Summary

This chapter examines the development of the law of the sea at the time of the League of Nations with specific focus on the entitlement to the oceans and the use of the oceans. This chapter first addresses the entitlement to and jurisdiction over marine spaces by examining the issue of the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, bays and islands. The chapter then examines the issue of the use of the oceans, focusing on the regulation of fishing and navigational rights in straits. Finally, the chapter will conclude that the era of the League of Nations can be thought to be one in which the traditional paradigm of the law of the sea was being formulated. However, the paradigm was qualified by the absence of an agreement with regard to the breadth of the territorial sea and rules regarding the delimitation of the territorial sea. In this sense, the paradigm in that period remained incomplete. Furthermore, the time was not ripe to establish a global legal framework for the conservation of marine living resources. Overall the law of the sea at the time was characterised by the reconciliation of competing interests of individual states.

Keywords

interwar law of the seaoceansstraitscodificationmaritime zonesislandsfishing
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of International Law , pp. 196 - 223
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

Anand, R.P., Origin and Development of the Law of the Sea. History of International Law Revisited (The Hague: Nijhoff 1983).Google Scholar
Daggett, A.P., ‘The regulation of maritime fisheries’, American Journal of International Law, 28 (1934) 693–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gidel, Gilbert, ‘La mer territoriale et la zone contiguë’, Recueil des cours, 48 (1934) 133–278.Google Scholar
Gidel, Gilbert, Le droit international public de la mer. Le temps de paix, vol. 3, La mer territoriale et la zone contiguë (Paris: Duchemin 1981).Google Scholar
Harvard Law School, ‘The Draft of Convention on Territorial Waters’, American Journal of International Law Special Supplement, 23 (1929) 241–380.Google Scholar
Hudson, M.O., ‘The First Conference for the Codification of International Law’, American Journal of International Law, 24 (1930) 447–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jessup, Philip C., The Law of Territorial Waters and Maritime Jurisdiction (New York: G.A. Jennings Co., Inc. 1927).Google Scholar
Juda, Lawrence, International Law and Ocean Use Management. The Evolution of Ocean Governance (London: Routledge 1996).Google Scholar
Lowe, Vaughan, ‘The development of the concept of the contiguous zone’, British Yearbook of International Law, 52 (1981) 109–69.Google Scholar
O’Connell, D.P. (ed. Shearer, I.A.), The International Law of the Sea, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1982).Google Scholar
Reeves, Jesse S., ‘The codification of the law of territorial waters’, American Journal of International Law, 24 (1930) 486–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riesenfeld, Stefan A., Protection of Coastal Fisheries under International Law (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1942).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenne, Shabtai (ed.), League of Nations Conference for the Codification of International Law 1930, 4 vols. (New York: Oceana 1975).Google Scholar
Rozakis, Christos L., and Stagos, Petros N., The Turkish Straits (Dordrecht: Nijhoff 1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scovazzi, Tullio, ‘The evolution of international law of the sea: new issues, new challenges’, Recueil des cours, 286 (2000) 39–243.Google Scholar
Takabayashi, Hideo, Ryokai Seido no Kenkyu (Study of Territorial Sea) (3rd edn, Tokyo: Yushindo 1987).Google Scholar
United Nations, ‘Documents on the development and codification of international law: historical survey of development of international law and its codification by international conferences’, American Journal of International Law Supplement, 41 (1947) 80–147.Google Scholar
Ünlü, Nihan, The Legal Regime of the Turkish Straits (The Hague: Kluwer 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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