Law of the sea

However, the earliest known formulation of public international law of the sea was in 17th century Europe, which saw unprecedented navigation, exploration, and trade across the world's oceans.

Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a mare clausum—literally a "closed sea" off limits to other naval powers—in part to protect its possessions in Asia.

[6]Writing in response to Grotius, the English jurist John Selden argued in Mare Clausum that the sea was as capable of appropriation by sovereign powers as terrestrial territory.

As a growing number of nations began to expand their naval presence across the world, conflicting claims over the open sea mounted.

This was aided by the compromise position presented by Dutch legal theorist Cornelius Bynkershoek, who in De dominio maris (1702), established the principle that maritime dominion was limited to the distance within which cannons could effectively protect it.

Grotius' concept of "freedom of the seas" became virtually universal through the 20th century, following the global dominance of European naval powers.

[11] By the mid 20th century, technological improvements in fishing and oil exploration expanded the nautical range in which countries could detect and exploit natural resources.

[12] This prompted United States President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to extend American jurisdiction to all the natural resources of its continental shelf, well beyond the territorial waters of the country.

[13][14] Other nations quickly followed suit: Between 1946 and 1950, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador extended their rights to a distance of 200 nautical miles (370 km) to cover their Humboldt Current fishing grounds.

[17] The pressing issue of varying claims of territorial waters was raised at the UN in 1967 by Malta, prompting in 1973 a third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea in New York City.

"Innocent passage" is permitted through both territorial waters and the EEZ, even by military vessels, provided they do no harm to the country or break any of its laws.

Between 2018 and 2020, there is a conference on a possible change to the law of the sea regarding conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (General Assembly resolution 72/249).