Regionalism and the Law of the Sea: The Case of Semi-enclosed Seas.

One of the possible outcomes of the Third Law of the Sea Conference may be a recognition of the right of countries within a geographic region to establish special juridical arrangements for their offshore areas. Regions may be of two types: common policy groupings, such as the Latin American or Soviet Union/East European Socialist states blocs; or complementary-use regions, as the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or other semi-enclosed seas. It is postulated that serious attention should be given at LOS III both to the definition of regions as geographic entities, and to the delineation of the types of special rules and regulations which may be adopted within these regions. A summary of the geographic and legal/political characteristics of twenty-five ‘semi-enclosed seas’ are presented as illustrative of a clearly defined type of complementary-use region for which specific jurisdictional arrangements might be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]