Captain Patrick J. Neher,
director of International and Operational Law for the Office of the
Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the U.S. Navy, joined us for a
discussion of the UN Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), focusing on
the relationship it establishes between the sovereign rights and
regulatory authorities of coastal states on the one hand and the
navigation rights and high seas freedoms enjoyed by the international
community on the other hand. Why have the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked
the Senate to accede to UNCLOS? How does the Convention affect trade,
security, resource exploitation, and environmental protection? How does
the Convention address (and limit) coastal state authority in
strategically important waterways, such as the Strait of Hormuz? How
does the Convention affect claims to continental margins in the Arctic?
What are innocent passage and transit passage? How does the law of the
sea affect the Internet?
