A Handbook on the New Law of the Sea

The fact that the Montego Bay Convention has been only ratified by 37 States at present and that it will be some time before the 60 ratifications required by Article 308 are achieved has not prevented states from acting in accordance with the rules drawn up by the Conference. Close on one hundred states have established either exclusive economic zones broadly modelled on Part V or 200-nautical-mile fishery zones and drawn on the principles laid down for exploiting living resources. Although these laws have been formulated unilaterally by states, international custom, since the judgement by the International Court of Justice in the Fisheries Case of 18 December 1951, is derived from concordant national rules. This shift began even before the Conference ended, and has been consolidated since then.
Moreover, the regime governing the sea-bed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction defined by Part XI, which was the stumbling block of the Conference, is subject to transitional arrangements on the basis of two resolutions adopted in the Conference's Final Act, one providing for the establishment of a Preparatory Commission and the other on the preliminary activities of pioneer investors. This two-volume work, an earlier edition of which appeared in French, has been written by a team of experts of international renown. It presents an analysis of the Convention with an additional Chapter on the legal regime governing underwater archaeological and historical objects.