This chapter explores how international law has responded to the increasing complexity of the uses of maritime space, focusing particularly on recent trends and developments. It considers the nature of the sovereign rights which States exercise over both space and living and non-living resources, and the extent to which control may be exercised over other users of the seas. It provides an introduction to the basic rules concerning the principal zones of maritime jurisdiction and looks at the rules for the construction of baselines and the problem of determining boundaries where claims to zones overlap. It also considers trends in governance over fisheries and over the deep seabed. While the law of the sea has undergone a remarkable transformation in the last 50 years, much more needs to be done to balance the competing demands of access to ocean space whilst recognizing the need to preserve order and good governance.
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Our survival on earth, this chapter argues, depends on the conservation of the world’s natural resources. These resources comprise of soil, water, the atmosphere, plants, trees, and other life forms. The chapter looks at the earth’s current ‘ecological footprint’ and the future of that ecological footprint as it stands now. There is now widespread scientific consensus that biodiversity is being lost, and that pressures on biodiversity are increasing. The chapter asks what we can do about this, in terms of international law. The chapter identifies how international law seeks to ensure the protection and conservation and sustainable use of nature, its ecosystems and biodiversity, and the effectiveness of measures developed to conserve land?based living resources, forests, and deserts.
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This chapter argues that the conservation of marine living resources presents complex problems of regulation and management. The oceans represent the least understood ecosystem on this earth and this makes the conservation of marine life and resources, and the regulation of such, very difficult and complicated. The chapter gives an overview of the law as it stands. International law on conservation and sustainable use of marine living resources has developed very slowly thus far. Effective regimes for conservation of marine living resources have to address not only sustainable use of targeted stocks, but also incidental catch of other species, conservation of biological diversity, and protection of the marine ecosystems which provide the main habitat for fish stocks and other species. The chapter concludes that developing a legal regime that provides for sustainable use and conservation of the ocean’s living resources and biological diversity within the framework of the general law of the sea will continue to remain problematic.
