Introduction

The drafters of the Law of the Sea Convention were aware that if the Convention was to provide an enduring legal framework, it must be able to evolve to take into account legal, political, scientific and technological developments. At the closing session of UNCLOS III, the delegate from Sri Lanka summed up the transience of the Convention framework in the following words:

The purpose of this chapter is to consider the formal and informal mechanisms for the review of the law of the sea regime and the making of amendments or modifications thereto.

The need for some institutional means through which measures could be taken to implement and develop the Law of the Sea Convention was discussed by UNCLOS III on a number of occasions. The issue was raised at an early stage by the UN Secretary-General in a speech to the second session of the Conference, when he highlighted to delegates that “inevitably … the international community would continue to evolve and its uses of the sea would continue to develop and diversify.” The Secretary-General went on to advocate that “the Conference … might well consider whether some institutional means should be created whereby, within the framework of the new convention, common measures could be agreed upon and taken whenever necessary so as to avoid obsolescence under changing world conditions.”