Mare Nostrum: A New International Law of the Sea

Abstract

That Princes may have an exclusive property in the Soveraigntie of the severall parts of the Sea, and in the passage, fishing and shores thereof, is so evidently true by way of fact, as no man that is not desperately impudent can deny it.Sir John BoroughsUsing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 as a root stock, it is possible to generate a fundamentally new international law of the sea. This regeneration will not be the product of yet another diplomatic negotiation among the representatives of the governments of states. It will be brought about by a much more direct and efficient method. It requires nothing more nor less than a reconceiving of the theoretical basis of the law of the sea.