Development of the Law of Sea after the UNCLOS 1982

Abstract

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is often referred to as the “Constitution of the Oceans”: it regulates all uses of the oceans and is recognized by almost all States. The past half century has been a time of intense technological development and new types of marine activities have emerged; climate warming has led to sea level rise and a change in delimitation in many places. Amendments are needed. The most effective means is the annual meetings of the States parties to the Convention, which are attended by both States not parties to the Convention and international organizations. The Meeting discusses the reports of the bodies established by the Convention, and this contributes to the development of a common opinion. Implementation agreements are also being adopted. During the most recent Meeting, it was noted that the growing number of cases pending before the Tribunal attests to the trust placed in it by States. Regarding the Seabed Authority, whose mandate includes the implementation of the concept of the common heritage of mankind, the importance of the Authority’s work on the development of a regulatory framework for the extraction of mineral resources in the Area was noted. A new issue, not regulated by the Convention norms, was also discussed — the preservation of the bottom environment in the process of seabed mining. The subject of discussion was the problems of law and order in the Arctic Ocean, that was ignored during the Third Conference because the ice conditions at that time made the issue unimportant one. Now, given the melting of the polar ice caps, the idea of extending the general maritime law and order to the Arctic has become popular. In our opinion, this does not comply with international law. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea should be qualified as a closed contractual regime. This is a separate part of international law and the norms contained in it, in principle, do not apply to the Arctic Ocean. In general, the process of making changes to the legal order established by the Convention is usually the legal development of contractual provisions.