The Montego Bay Convention

Promote an awareness of the range of international disputes in existence over the resources of the sea (primarily fishing and other environmental issues)

• Discuss and explain the abilities and limitations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to regulate maritime resource disputes.

HISTORY OF THE MONTEGO BAY CONVENTION

The sea, is like a boundary line dividing the countries of the world from one another. It focuses strategic, political, military and economic challenges, a space to be exploited for its riches and a means of communication between continents and people, the sea is also a space of freedom. It therefore soon proved crucial to regulate this space “between neighbors”. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, more widely known as “Montego Bay Convention” sets out a number of practices, rules, rights and duties for users of the seas.

The Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea of ​​1958 laid the foundation for what will be the future Montego Bay Convention. It adopted four conventions on:

• The territorial sea and the contiguous zone;
• The high seas;
• The continental shelf (the purpose of which is to define and define the rights of States to explore and exploit the natural resources of the continental shelf);
• Fisheries and the conservation of biological resources.

Many developing countries will challenge some of the rules adopted in Geneva. After the Geneva Conference in 1958, a third conference on the law of the sea convened by the United Nations was held from 1973 to 1982 ... Finally, on 10 December 1982, the Convention was signed at Montego Bay (Jamaica) Of the United Nations on the Law of the Sea, known as Montego Bay Convention.

This new Convention adds four maritime zones to the zones defined above:

• Archipelagic waters;
• The exclusive economic zone;
• Navigable straits;
• The Deep seabed

Industrial countries, which disagreed on certain major provisions, only completed an amended version of the agreement in 1994, when the Convention actually became effective. France ratified the Montego Bay Convention in 1996.

The Montego Bay Convention lays down a number of rules pertaining to:

Freedom of navigation and transit between countries;

• Peaceful use of the seas;
• Fair and efficient exploitation of resources;
• Conservation of the marine environment.

The Montego Bay Convention outlines the various maritime zones bordering coastal states but also islands and archipelagic states. These delimitations structure and rationalize the marine space. Every “strip” of sea thus defined is subject to a specific legal regime whereby the coastal State has specific rights and duties towards ships flying its flag, foreign ships and marine resources.

Apart from the United States, most industrial countries have ratified the Convention. 20 signatory countries are yet to ratify: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Salvador, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Thailand, Libya, Liechtenstein, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Swaziland, United Arab Emirates, and United States 17 countries have not signed the Convention: Andorra, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Eritrea, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Saint-Marin, Syria, Tajikistan, Timor oriental, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vatican, and Venezuela.

The Economic Issue of the Northwest and Northeast Passages

The accelerated melting of the Arctic ice-cap in summer suggests the possibility of its disappearance during this season in fifteen to sixty years. As the ice is separated more and more early and reconciled later and later, the navigable season, which lasted for two and a half months, lasts for three months, and may extend for some years to five months. This phenomenon revives the hopes of opening the mythical North-East and North-West Passages between Asia and Europe. Are the shipping routes through Northern Siberia and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago shorter than 7,000 km by Panama or Suez? The evocation of ice-free Arctic seas over periods of several months also boosts hydrocarbon and mineral projects on both the Russian and Canadian sides, with attractive prospects for oil, gas, gold, diamonds and nickel.

The Northwest Passage is the North Sea Passage that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the arctic islands of Canada's Great North, separated from the Canadian Continent by a series of channels, More or less deep. The opening of this passage to navigation is a source of dispute between the United States and Canada. The former believes that this passage obeys the straits regime, while for the latter it is in the internal waters of its archipelago.

Having a major interest in making the other powers recognize that the archipelago is an indivisible whole and on which it has its hold, Canada defends its sovereignty on an overall plan. It reinforces this legal claim by proceeding to include its territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone as if it were an archipelagic State within the meaning of the Montego Bay Convention. However, an archipelagic State is a State made up entirely of islands or parts of islands and therefore does not have a continental territory, unlike Canada.

The North-East Passage, known as the North Sea Route, is a seaway that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean along the northern coast of Siberia. It’s now navigable part of the year. It takes the northern cape most of its journey taking place in the Arctic seas. At present, Russia imposes every foreign ship to have an authorization and to be accompanied by a Russian ice-breaker at a prohibitive price. But it should soon be allowed to sail with just a hull to the bow reinforced. For example, the sea route Rotterdam-Tokyo is currently 21 100 km by the Suez Canal and 23 300 km by the Panama Canal. By the passage of the North-East it is 14 100km., A difference of 7000 km ...

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The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

Largely of customary origin, the law of the sea has long been limited to the principle of freedom of the seas: the sea and the oceans are open to all and belong to no one, except for a band of 3 Miles from the shore where the coastal state exercises full sovereignty, corresponding to the scope of the cannonball of the time.

On the one hand, Montego Bay Convention defines maritime areas and, on the other hand, the duties of States in these areas, in particular as regards navigation, exploitation of economic resources and protection of the marine environment. With the creation of the 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, including the territorial sea, all maritime-frontier countries have been allocated, claimed or negotiated a more or less extensive and complex maritime area. For a coastal State, possession of an EEZ is a power factor, as it has sovereign rights over the exploitation of fisheries and the resources of the soil and subsoil of the seabed like hydrocarbons, minerals, metals ...