The right of overflight over strait states and archipelagic states: Developments and prospects

The Convention on the Law of the Sea is the result of almost ten years of negotiation at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. Three factors largely explain the length of the negotiations, namely: (1) the conflict of interests between the coastal states and the maritime states, including the military interests of the US and the USSR;(2) the divergent positions on the future regime for sharing resources found on the ocean floor held by the developing countries and the industrialized states, and (3) the problems connected with incorporating the interests of the land-locked countries into a convention on the law of the sea.