The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 entered into force on 16 November 1994. Since this date a single binding instrument has regulated the rights and duties of States at sea and regarding the sea. New concepts, such as the exclusive economic zone, archipelagic waters, transit passage through straits, and the International Seabed Area, are now fully recognized.
The fifteen member States of the European Union are a significant sample for analyzing the practice of States, or at least that of the Western industrialized States, as regards the law of the sea....