Editorial note

The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), negotiated under the auspices of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, aims to establish a comprehensive legal regime to govern activities in and in relation to the world's seas and oceans. The selected Articles reproduced below are directly concerned with natural resources and the marine environment. Much of the Convention is considered to be declaratory of customary international law. The Convention's comprehensive definition of pollution of the marine environment (Article 1) has been used or relied on in subsequent agreements for the protection of the marine environment.

The Convention affirms the right of innocent passage in territorial waters, subject to certain limitations: passage loses its innocence if a foreign vessel engages in an act of wilful and serious pollution contrary to the Convention (Article 19(2)(h)), and coastal States are entitled to adopt the necessary laws relating to innocent passage for the purpose of, inter alia, the conservation of marine living resources and the protection of the marine environment (Article 21(1)). The Convention further provides that ships in passage must comply with international regulations for control of pollution (Article 39). The Convention permits States bordering straits and archipelagic sea lanes to make laws to protect, inter alia, the environment against pollution (Articles 42, 43 and 54).

The Convention establishes a regime of access to natural resources depending on where the activity takes place: within a State's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or on the high seas.