162 The Environmental Debate
DOCUMENT 130: United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea (1983)The Law of the Sea is probably the most far reaching of the United Nations environmental agreements. It
sets forth the limits of national sovereignty and demands that parties to the agreement abide by international
regulation of activity in non-territorial waters. It marked the end of the days when the high seas could be viewed
as a commons in which nations could freely dump garbage and harvest resources.
Although the United States is a signatory to the convention—meaning that it agrees to adhere fundamentally
to the convention—and even though several amendments that addressed America’s strategic concerns about it
were later added to the convention, the United States Senate has never ratified it.Article 2
The sovereignty of a coastal State extends,
beyond its land territory and internal waters
and, in the case of an archipelagic State, its
archipelagic waters, to an adjacent belt of sea,
described as the territorial sea.
This sovereignty extends to the air space over
the territorial sea as well as to its bed and subsoil.
Article 3
Every State has the right to establish the breadth
of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12
nautical miles, measured from baselines deter-
mined in accordance with this Convention.
Article 33
In a zone contiguous to its territorial sea,
described as the contiguous zone, the coastal
State may exercise the control necessary to:
(a) prevent infringement of its customs, fis-
cal, immigration or sanitary laws andregulations within its territory or territo-
rial sea;
(b) punish infringement of... laws and regu-
lations committed within its territory or
territorial sea.
The contiguous zone may not extend beyond
24 nautical miles from the baselines from which
the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.Article 55
The exclusive economic zone is an area
beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, sub-
ject to the specific legal regime established in this
Part, under which the rights and jurisdiction of
the coastal State and the rights and freedoms of
other States are governed by the relevant provi-
sions of this Convention.Article 56
In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal
State has- Policies must be changed in view of points
(1)-(5). These policies affect basic economic,
technological, and ideological structures.
The resulting state of human affairs will be
greatly different from the present. - The appreciation of a high quality of life
will supersede that of a high standard of life. - Those who accept the foregoing points
have an obligation to try to contribute
directly to the implementation of necessary
changes.
Source: A. Stephen Bodian, “Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: A
Conversation with Arne Naess,” Ten Directions (Zen Center of
Los Angeles), Summer-Fall 1982, in Bill Devall and George Sessions,
eds., Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered (Salt Lake City:
Peregrine Smith Books, 1985), p. 75. B. Arne Naess, “Sustainable
Development and Deep Ecology,” in J. Ronald Engel and Joan
Gibb Engel, eds., Ethics of Environmental Development: Global
Challenge, International Response (London: John Wiley, 1992), p. 88.