CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

PETR VÁLEK CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ the International Law Commission, Mr. Václav Mikulka, and its current Deputy Director is Mr. Vladimír Jareš. In addition, the late Professor Vladimír Kopal, better known through his expertise in international space law, also participated in the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and published in this field. 4 In order to prove my point, I would like to demonstrate, using three specific examples, why the law of the sea matters even to a landlocked country like the Czech Republic. First of all, I will describe what the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (adopted at Montego Bay on 10 December 1982, hereinafter, the “UNCLOS”) has to offer to the landlocked States like the Czech Republic, in particular in relation to their right of access to the sea. Second, I will focus on the legal regime of the international sea bed area under the UNCLOS that may provide new economic opportunities to the Czech Republic. Third, as the last relevant law of the sea issue in this article, I will address the current efforts to conclude “an international legally binding instrument under the UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction”, a new implementation agreement under the UNCLOS. The primary source of the law of the sea is the UNCLOS which codifies its most important rules. The UNCLOS was named, therefore, “a constitution for the oceans” by TommyT. B. Koh, the President of theThirdUNConference on the Law of the Sea, 5 where the UNCLOS was negotiated. The UNCLOS has currently 168 State parties 6 (nevertheless, this number does not include some important coastal States, e.g., the United States and Turkey). Czechoslovakia was one of the seventeen States (mostly from the East bloc) that abstained when the UNCLOS was adopted, and although it subsequently became one of its signatories, it did not ratify it. This final step was done by both successors of Czechoslovakia – the Czech Republic and Slovakia – in 1996 7 (the UNCLOS entered into force on 16 November 1994). With regard to the two basic functions of the seas, “first, as a medium of communication, and secondly as a vast reservoir of resources, both living and non-living”, 8 it is without any doubt that access to the sea has been an advantage for coastal States, mainly for political, military, and economic reasons (even though not every coastal State has been able to benefit from this advantage). It is, therefore, understandable that the forty-two landlocked States strived to secure the right of access to the sea and its resources during the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and, on some issues, they succeeded. Under the customary international law at the time, the right of access of landlocked States to the sea most likely did not exist. 9 Therefore, Part X of the UNCLOS (“Right of access of land-locked States to and from the sea and the freedom of transit”) imposed new 2. UNCLOS as a Guarantee of Access to the Sea for Landlocked States 4 A eulogy written by: HOFMANNOVÁ, M., available at the website of the Czech Society of International Law: https://www.csmp-csil.org/news/zemrel-prof-vladimir-kopal/. 5 His remarks are available at: http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/koh_english.pdf. 6 Available at the website of DOALOS: http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_ convention.htm. 7 In the Czech Republic, the UNCLOS was promulgated under Act No. 240/1996 Sb.. 8 SHAW, M. N.: International Law , 6th Edition, Cambridge 2008, p. 553. 9 CHURCHILL, R. R., LOWE, A. V.: The Law of the Sea , 3rd Edition, Manchester 1999, p. 440.

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