The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as Soft Law
![handle is hein.journals/hujil8 and id is 45 raw text is: THE 1982 UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON
THE LAW OF THE SEA AS SOFT LAW
John King Gamble, Jr.*
I. INTRODUCTION
During the last fifteen years probably no area of international law
has commanded more attention than the Law of the Sea. The Third
U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea struggled for more than a decade
before finally producing the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea in
1982 (the Convention or the MBC).1 When the MBC was completed,
117 states signed it immediately2; and another thirty-eight signed3 during
the ensuing two years during which time the treaty remained open for
signature.4 However, this treaty requires sixty ratifications to enter into
force.5 So far only twenty-five states have ratified it.6 Thus, the future
of the treaty is problematic-it may never enter into force. But the MBC
remains one of the most complicated, important attempts to codify inter-
national law. The complexity and scope of the Convention suggest that
many of the problems and issues generic to conventional law are proba-
bly going to manifest themselves in the text of this treaty.
One of the trends in the study of international law coming to the
fore since 1970 has been the idea of soft law. This interest in soft law has
been spurred by the nature and limitations of international law itself,
specifically, the fact that the provisions of international law are often
vague and indistinct, creating commitments that may be subjective, tena-
tive and conditional. The purpose of this piece is to examine soft law in
order to develop a manageable definition applicable to the Convention.
It is anticipated that this will help to sharpen some of the tenets of soft
law while providing a different vantage about the strengths and weak-
nesses of the law contained in the MBC.
* Professor of Political Science, The Pennsylvania State University.
I am grateful to Amy Frisina for valuable research assistance during the preparation of
this paper.
1. Official text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with Annexes and
Index, U.N. Sales, No. E.83.V5 (1982 [hereinafter cited as MBC].
2. Id. at 190.
3. Up-to-date information kindly provided by the Treaty Division of the UN Secretariat
[hereinafter cited as Treaty Division].
4. MEC, supra note 1, at art. 305, at 105.
5. MBC, supra note 1, art. 308, at 106.
6. Treaty Division, supra note 3.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hujil8&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as Soft Law
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