OBSERVATIONS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARCHIPELAGIC SEA LANES

With the ratification of the Convention on the Law of the Sea we enter an implementing phase. This requires an interpretation of the meaning of various articles. As cases are examined on an individual base it i s found that some of the rather general terms used in the Convention a re insufficiently precise to make an unambiguous interpretation. This has found to be the case in archipelagic sea lanes, described in Artic le 53 of the Convention. A proposal by Indonesia to IMO has provided a first case to examine these matters in detail and it will probably pr ovide a precedent for future interpretations. A key issue is whether a n archipelagic sea lane is simply another routeing measure or whether it provides a completely new regime and should be treated quite indepe ndently.