"May 2009."--T.p.

In this Council Special Report, Scott G. Borgerson explores an important element of the maritime policy regime: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He examines the international negotiations that led to the convention, as well as the history of debates in the United States over whether to join it. He then analyzes the strategic importance of the oceans for U.S. foreign policy today. The report ultimately makes a strong case for the United States to accede to the Convention on the Law of the Sea, contending that doing so would benefit U.S. national security as well as America's economic and environmental interests. Among other things, the report argues, accession to the convention would secure rights for U.S. commercial and naval ships, boost the competitiveness of American firms in activities at sea, and increase U.S. influence in important policy decisions, such as adjudications of national claims to potentially resource-rich sections of the continental shelf.

The 1982 U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea took over a decade to produce and was the final result of the largest single international negotiating process undertaken before or since that time. As the world's leading maritime nation, the U.S. has vital, immediate, national interests in the Convention and in the continuing refinement of maritime law based upon the tenets of that comprehensive document. The present work describes in detail the concurrent development of international law and the law of the sea, the complex negotiating process that resulted in the completed Convention, the role of the U.S. both during the Law of the Sea Convention and during the decade of negotiation that finally made the Convention acceptable, and policy directions and issues for the U.S. in the post-Convention environment. This is an important new text in international law, international relations, and maritime affairs.

"The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) organized the 'UNCLOS at 30' conference on 22-23 November 2012 in Belfast, which inspired the launching of this book project. All of the contributing authors spoke at the conference...and most of their chapters have evolved from their presentations"--Page vii.

Volume III is the fourth substantive volume to be published in this series, covering articles 86 to 132 of the 1982 Convention. These articles address the issue of States' rights and jurisdiction in maritime areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction (with the exception of the international seabed area), as well as the regime to be applied to islands, in enclosed and semi-enclosed seas, and with the access of landlocked States to and from the sea. Volume III is a direct continuation of Volume II, which deals with maritime areas under the sovereignty of jurisdiction of a State, and completes the commentary on the provisions of the Convention negotiated under the auspices of the Second Committee at UNCLOS III. The work of the Second Committee was an integrated whole, and the unity of the theme has been spread over two volumes solely as a matter of convenience. A number of documentary annexes have been included in this volume.