Navigating Straits: Challenges for International Law

The importance of straits, particularly those used in international navigation, has been long recognized in international law. One of the important debates during the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conference concerned the regime of passage through straits used in international navigation. The result was the creation of a multi-tiered legal framework of passage that included the entirely a new “transit passage” regime. Although over thirty years have passed since the adoption of the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, the vital role played by straits in the global communications network continues to be surrounded by conflicts between the interests of coastal states and shipping. Challenges still exist to achieving the simultaneous global goals of secure passage of vessels and protection of the marine environment.

In Navigating Straits: Challenges for International Law, internationally recognized international law scholars provide in-depth analysis of the legal challenges in straits concerning security, piracy, safety and environmental protection. All readers interested in international and law of the sea will find this seminal volume of interest.

Professor David Caron is Dean of The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London. He relocated to London in May 2013 from California, where he was the C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and Co-Director of the Law of the Sea Institute. He currently serves, among other things, as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Rule of Law, member of the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on Public International Law, and as a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law.
Nilufer Oral is a member of the Faculty of Law at Istanbul Bilgi University and is Deputy Directory of the Istanbul Bilgi Research Center for the Law of the Sea. She also serves as co‐chair of the IUCN Specialist Group on Oceans, Coasts and Coral Reefs for the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and is Chair of the IUCN Academy on Environmental Law. She is a Distinguished Senior Visiting Scholar at Law of the Sea Institute, UC Berkeley School of Law (2011-2014).