Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1.5 The adequacy of the current regime on the law of the sea
(in the light of emerging and unresolved issues)
law of the sea and its institutions and the development of the law of the sea since the adop-
tion of UNCLOS, achievements, and challenges for the future. Treves demonstrates that the
adoption of the LOS Convention, its entry into force in 1994, and the now 165 associated
ratifications and accessions have led to the radical transformation of the law of the sea from
mainly customary law-based into a mainly treaty-based branch of international law. Custo-
mary international law continues to exist, but the relationship between customary and treaty
rules has been deeply transformed.
In fact, in the early days of the law of the sea, the dominant (and prudent) view was
that the correspondence of any general statement with customary law had to be assessed on
a case-by-case basis. Today, with the exception of rules concerning the establishment and
functioning of institutions, the rules set out in the LOS Convention correspond with custom-
ary international law; while customary law continues to play a role in relation to the interna-
tional law of the sea, the widely recognized role of the LOS Convention as the 'constitution
of the oceans' de facto imposes utmost caution in determining the emergence of customary
rules in the context of the LOS Convention.
LOS Convention, which are essential in making the Convention operational through the
development of substantive rules and their updating. These are the Meeting of the States
Parties to the Convention; the International Seabed Authority (ISA, or ISBA); the Interna-
tional Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS); and the Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf (CLCS). For each of these, shortcomings and the challenges and oppor-
tunities that they face can be identified. Clarifications have been made regarding the rela-
tionship of the LOS Convention with organizations which existed before its entry into force,
as well as in relation with generally accepted international rules and standards, such as laws
