Oceans Policy

Oceans Policy: New Institutions, Challenges and Opportunities draws attention to three new international institutions created by the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea. The International Seabed Authority located in Jamaica governs global activities to convert polymetallic resources into reserves of metal. The Legal Counsel for the Authority provides the first public review of the Authority's draft Mining Code containing the rules, regulations, and procedures for deep seabed mining. The second institution dealt with is the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Professor Louis Sohn outlines several innovative uses of advisory opinions available to the Tribunal while the President of the Tribunal reports on a busy first year of work by this new institution located in Hamburg. Other items discussed are the jurisdiction of the Tribunal and its working methods, including its rules, proceedings and internal procedures. The third international institution established to implement the 1980 Convention is the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. An explanation is given of the geographical context for the development of the legal concept of the Continental Shelf. The principal problems that the Commission must resolve are summarized, in particular with respect to the definition in the Convention of the outer limit of the Continental Shelf. The fourth part of this work is focused on the global challenges posed by drug trafficking in the Caribbean region. The international legal framework governing intercepting illegal drug shipments at sea is analyzed. Recent counter-drug initiatives undertaken at the International Maritime Organization are then reviewed. The book also contains discussion of the growing threat to ocean freedom posed by piracy and armed robbery at sea, as well as the increasing problems in reconciling the rules for salvage of shipwrecks and underwater archeology. The publication is based on a conference held in Jamaica that was organized by the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law.