Introduction

For over ten years, in three Conferences and some nine Conference sessions, the United Nations has grappled with the codification and the creation of the Law of the Sea. Numerous writers have recounted the uniqueness and importance of these negotiations and the difficulties in the path of agreement.... When the negotiations recessed temporarily last September in New York, there was strong sentiment on the part particularly of the smaller countries that significant progress must be made on the outstanding issues during the Eighth Session opening this March to justify the continuation of UNCLOS III. I propose to use this introduction to the San Diego Law Review's annual Symposium on the Law of the Sea to review these outstanding issues and to place them in perspective against the broad range of consensus agreement already recorded.