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Cassese's International Law

Cassese's International Law (3rd edn)

Paola Gaeta, Jorge E. Viñuales, and Salvatore Zappalá
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date: 09 February 2025

p. 925. The Spatial Dimensions of State Activitieslocked

p. 925. The Spatial Dimensions of State Activitieslocked

  • Paola Gaeta, Paola GaetaProfessor of International Law, The Graduate Institute, Geneva
  • Jorge E. ViñualesJorge E. ViñualesHarold Samuel Professor of Law and Environmental Policy, University of Cambridge
  • , and Salvatore ZappalàSalvatore ZappalàProfessor of International Law, University of Catania

Abstract

This chapter begins with an examination of the related concepts of sovereignty, competence, and jurisdiction. It then discusses the international law governing territory, sea, the international seabed, and the concept of common heritage of mankind, air, and outer space. In traditional international law the physical dimension of State activity was regulated in fairly simple terms. The earth, portions of the sea, and the air were divided up into areas subject to the sovereign authority of States. The only exception to this partition was the high seas, which—since the seventeenth century—were subject to the principle that they were a thing belonging to everybody (res communis omnium): every State could sail its ships or use the high seas’ resources as it pleased, as long as it did not hamper their free use by other States. However, a nationalist, self-centred approach has displaced community interests and any idea of solidarity or joint utilization of resources.

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