Professionals' Definitions and States' Interpretative Declarations (Understandings, Statements, or Declarations) for the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention
![handle is hein.journals/emint21 and id is 465 raw text is: ARTICLES
PROFESSIONALS' DEFINITIONS AND STATES'
INTERPRETATIVE DECLARATIONS (UNDERSTANDINGS,
STATEMENTS, OR DECLARATIONS) FOR THE 1982 LAW OF
THE SEA CONVENTION
George K. Walker*
Before and after the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) went into
force in 19941 and after the 1994 Agreement modifying its terms definitively
* Professor of Law, Wake Forest University School of Law. B.A., University of Alabama, 1959; LL.B.,
Vanderbilt University, 1966; A.M., Duke University, 1968; LL.M., University of Virginia, 1972; Chair,
American Branch International Law Association Law of the Sea Committee; member, North Carolina and
Virginia Bars. My thanks to American Branch International Law Association Law of the Sea Committee
members, particularly John E. Noyes, Professor of Law, California Western School of Law; Howard S.
Schiffman, New York University; and others for their comments; Professor Shannon Gilreath, Worrell
Professional Center Library Librarian for Foreign and International Law and Assistant Director of the LL.M.
in American Law Program; and his staff, for research assistance. A Wake Forest University School of Law
grant supported research. A small portion of this Article appeared as Part II of George K. Walker, Defining
Terms in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention: The Last Round of Definitions Proposed by the International
Law Association (American Branch) Law of the Sea Committee, 36 CAL. W. INT'L L.J. 133, 143-51 (2005),
reprinted as George K. Walker, Report of the Law of the Sea Committee: Defining Terms in the 1982 Law of
the Sea Convention: The Last Round of Definitions Proposed by the International Law Association (American
Branch) Law of the Sea Committee, PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN BRANCH OF THE INTERNATIONAL LAW
ASSOCIATION 2005-2006, at 23, 32-40 (Jeffery Atik ed., 2006), also reprinted in INTERNATIONAL LAW
ASSOCIATION (AMERICAN BRANCH) LAW OF THE SEA COMMITTEE, REPORT: TERMS IN THE 1982 U.N.
CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA OR IN CONVENTION ANALYSIS THAT THE CONVENTION DOES NOT
DEFINE PART III.C (May 30, 2007, Rev. Final Draft). Errors are my responsibility. Copyright © George K.
Walker.
After this Article was in press, S. Exec. Rep. No. 110-9 (Dec. 19, 2007) became available; it publishes
the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee's recommended declarations, understandings and conditions to
the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1994 Agreement modifying the Convention in again
submitting these treaties to the full Senate for advice and consent. The 2007 Report publishes the same
declarations, understandings and conditions as those in S. Exec. Rep. No. 108-10 (2004), which the Article
analyzes. Under the circumstances the Editors and I decided to go forward with what I had submitted in mid-
2007.
1 See United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, art. 308(1), Dec. 10, 1982, 1833 U.N.T.S. 3,
397 [hereinafter UNCLOS] (60 ratifications required); 2 UNITED NATIONS, MULTILATERAL TREATIES
DEPOSITED WITH THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: STATUS AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2005, at 258, U.N. Doc.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/emint21&div=18&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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