Coastal State Competences Regarding Safety of Maritime Navigation: recent trends

The erosion of the freedom of the seas regime that has been taking place especially since the end of World War II seems to be continuing more gradually and in a different manner. In order to protect the interests of the international community coinciding more or less with their own needs, the coastal states, the archipelagic states, the regional fishing organizations for the highseas and the International Seabed Authority are ever more often exercising functions thatpreviously had been carried out above all by the flag state. In this work we examine theevolution of international law governing the safety of maritime navigation. The analysiscovers, first, the cooperation between coastal states and the International Maritime Organization and, subsequently, coastal states’independently exercisable competences: both topics concerning the reinforcement of the safety maritime navigation.