Sea and its Law
Earth is a watery place in which 71% of its surface is covered with oceans. Hence, it is obvious that the primarily land-dwelling humans went to the ocean or sea for various purposes. How people or states utilize the sea are numerous; trading, fishing, farming, security, warfare, research, gathering resources to name a few. Similarly, as it happens in the land, the emergence of human activities in the sea necessarily invites laws and regulations to uphold and maintain a peaceful order of such activities. Consequently, rules that emerged centuries ago as regional customary practices have now climbed up to the international level.
The sea is utilized by the majority of nations either coastal or not, which urges the necessity of international rules based on international consensus. The international rules affecting the activities in the sea are numerous just as its subjects, be it conventions, treaties, declarations, customs, principles, codes, determinations, rules, and regulations. Whatever the form or the interest, international rules affecting the affairs of sea fall within the two-fold approach of international law as a whole;
- Public International Law
- Private International Law
Whether an international law public or private depends on the stakeholders involved in that particular area of law. Whereas, issues related to the affairs of or between states are public international concerns, and, issues concerning the affairs of individuals in different states acting in their private capacity are private international concerns.
Accordingly, laws relating to sea would also be public or private international law; more particularly, this division of law relating to activities at sea is identified as Law of the Sea and Maritime Law respectively.
Law of the Sea is more like the land law of the seas and oceans, which is responsible for the demarcation of limits, rights, obligations, and privileges that can be exercised on the sea by coastal states, non-coastal states, and maritime states. Yeah, that’s right. Even non-coastal states have rights and privileges on the sea and can exploit the resources of the sea within allowed limits. Non-coastal states like Switzerland and Zambia actively engage in maritime activities. These public international laws which derived from customary laws ranging from Territorial Sea Convention (1958), High Seas Convention (1958), and Continental Shelf Convention (1958) are now composed into a much detailed codified law, the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (1982). UNCLOS which came into effect in 1994 with sufficient ratifications is now the majority accepted international law to determine the status and relationships of states regarding the public issues relating to seas and oceans.
Maritime law, a.k.a. Shipping law or Admiralty law, derived rules and principles from customs, case law, national and international legislations. Having concerned with the issues of individuals of different states, maritime law deals with various distinct disciplines; to name a few — navigation, carriage of goods and persons, environmental protection, the safety of ship and crew, use of ships and vessels, controls, contracts and torts, offenses. The reason for maritime law to look over various disciplines is that contemporary shipping practices are not limited to mere transportation but extend to wider areas such as the leisure and hospitality industry. So as its various disciplines, sources of maritime law are also numerous and distinctive.
Private international law has a rapid development in comparison to public international law due to the growth of maritime industry and extensive use of the sea. Many of the distinctive areas of maritime law have their sources of law and many international institutions dedicated to their area of maritime law are acting as watchdogs, with International Maritime Organization (IMO) on the lead, to maintain a fair and effective use of the sea.
That is the very basic structure of the laws relating to the seas and oceans of our precious world. Let’s dig deep to further aspects of these laws in upcoming rounds. Until then, anchors away!