The 1982 Convention and Customary Law of the Sea: Observations, a Framework, and a Warning

This Article examines the relationship between the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention and customary international law of the sea. The authors warn against the simple inquiry of whether the 1982 Convention codifies existing customary law, and propose a three-category approach with which to analyze the Convention's provisions. The authors argue that the relationship between the 1982 Convention and customary international law is an organic, interactive process that will preoccupy legal scholarship for the rest of the decade and that any attempt to arrive at a definitive treatment of this issue would be impossible.