Crisis in the Law of the Sea: Community Perspectives versus National Egoism

THE historic function of the international law of the sea has long been recognized as that of achieving an appropriate balance between the special exclusive demands of coastal states, and other special claimants, and the general inclusive demands of all other states in the world arena. 1 Historically, the record is familiar: the oceans of the world were at one time claimed for the exclusive use of a limited number of states, but concern for the more general interest of the whole community of states ultimately succeeded in freeing the larger expanses of the oceans for relatively unhampered use by all. 2 The knowledge is equally familiar, however, that coastal states never surrendered their claim to exclusive and comprehensive authority over certain adjacent areas of the sea 3 and that, tWilliam