Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 06/2012

Much ado about rocks

Melda Malek

April 2012

Maritime Institute of Malaysia

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) was the culmination of almost a decade of active negotiations between states on how the oceans should be navigated, explored, exploited and governed. Naturally, as in any negotiations, compromises were often sought when parties could not quite see eye to eye on certain issues.