OCEA 2000X Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Mare Liberum, United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea, Wave Power
31 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Mare liberum is a concept developed by the dutch to establish a legal framework for exploitation of the sea and its resources. Water beyond national boundaries has two attributes: free to all and belonging to none. This framework depends on definition of national boundaries. This framework does not address how one can fairly exploit resources that are free yet do not belong to anyone. Traditional uses of the sea were rather specific: fisheries, transportation and defense. The cannon shot rule limited national waters to about 3 nautical miles. But following wwii geopolitical and technological changes led to an expansion of the traditional definition of national waters. In 1945 harry truman claimed all resources on the u. s. continental shelf. The primary reason for expansion of national waters was oil. The seabed historically had not been used for much of anything. That all changed with the birth of the petroleum industry.
