The Legal Order of the Oceans: Basic Documents on the Law of the Sea(Documents in International Law)

This compendium of documents brings together, for the first time in an affordable format, the essential documents needed to gain a thorough knowledge of the laws of the sea. There has been a long felt need for such a collection to provide students, scholars and practitioners with a working library of the key materials. This collection integrates documents of the International Maritime Organisation (which are not available anywhere on the web in consolidated form), of regional fisheries organizations, security related documents, treaties concerning resource exploitation, environmental protection measures and much more, into the framework created by the Law of the Sea Convention. The book is aimed at teachers and practitioners in the area and can be used as a class room companion for law of the sea courses.

About the Author :
Vaughan Lowe QC, is the Chichele Professor of Public International Law and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University. He practises as a Barrister from Essex Court Chambers in London. Professor Stefan Talmon is Director at the Institute of Public International Law, University of Bonn, and Supernumerary Fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford. He practises as a Barrister from 20 Essex Street Chambers in London

Review :
While the internet is useful for downloading relevant treaties etc, a book such as this is very handy for a legal novice who is unsure of what to be looking for. ...the collection of documents under review is singular in that it includes only the most important treaties and UN documents in order to present an overarching framework of the law of the sea. The time-span of the collected documents is wide, ranging from 1923 until 2009, as is the breadth of their subjest matter. However, clear foci are provided by the inclusion of important treaties, which provide individual pivots around which other relevant documents can be brought into context. ...the treaties are reproduced in the collection in their most recent version ... bringing the reader up to date on the present state of law. The collection also serves as a handy reference source for study or research purposes, as it is a general collection without particular emphasis or detailed focus upon a geographical area, subject matter, treaty system, or law-making process. It is also noted that, besides the useful table of contents arranged according to subject matter, the materials can also be conveniently accessed according to the subject areas in which the collected documents are applied in practice ... with those areas serving as headings in a detailed index. ...this collection of documents is bound to be useful for both teaching and studying the law of the sea, in particular, due to the inductive approach the editors adopted for its compilation. Both editors have recognized academic and practical experiences in this area and their selections for this volume are certainly a good guide for students and practitioners alike. This is the first major source book in the English language devtoed to the internaional law of the sea. For that reason alone, it deserves special attention. [the] documents are ordered chronologically, with each document receiving a proper number ... and accompanied by a very detailed index, which opens up these documents to the user with unprecedented ease. an extremely useful tool for anybody involved in the teaching or in practice of the law of the sea and should be present in any law library One can cheerfully welcome the arrival of this volume as an overdue friend. It will be of use and interest not merely to students, scholars and practitioners of the law of the sea but to a wider audience of environmental and general public international lawyers. It is also suriprisingly up-to-date A comprehensive index of topics help in making the connection between treaties dealing with overlapping subject matters...This provides the kind of tool you didn't realise you were missing until it was handed to you. This is an excellent volume, deserving wide adoption both in teaching and as a scholar's or practitioner's desk-reference.