The principle of common heritage of mankind in the new law of the sea: An African perspective based on Nasila S. Rembe's work

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2006 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: B+, University of Dar es Salaam (Faculty of Law), course: Law of the Sea, language: English, abstract: Hailed as a milestone in the development of international relations and sparked by the remarks of the Ambassador of Malta - Arvid Pardo - at the United Nations General Assembly, besides the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the principle of Common Heritage of Mankind found entry in numerous international treaties.

Changing the conception of the Freedom of the High Seas as brought about some 400 years ago by Dutch Lawyer Hugo Grotius and 'ruling the world' ever since, this paper analyzes the legal significance of the principle from an African perspective.

Based on the notions brought forward by the Group of 77, of which the African contribution to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea was part, Nasila S. Rembe formulated the following African demands for the translation of the concept of Common Heritage of Mankind into the envisaged New Law of the Sea. These are namely: the usage of the seabed for exclusively peaceful purposes, ensuring the rational exploitation of the resources, and the minimization of likely adverse economic effects.

Following the historical developments between the 1958 Geneva Conventions and the aftermath of the 1994 Agreement Relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, adopted as United Nations General Assembly Resolution 48/263, the paper examines the legal character of the principle of Common Heritage of Mankind in different stages and to which extend the African demands were met.

The significant changes mainly to Part XI of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea brought about by the 1994 Agreement Relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - which however let to the universal international accession to the New Law of the Sea - are seen as disadvantageous to the African aspirations for a new international economic order.

Concluding, this work contents that today's New Law of the Sea has rendered the Principle of Common Heritage of Mankind to an empty term by - albeit its prominent position - eliminating any binding effect on the states, thus severing itself from the idea of an international utility and returning to the "Old" Law of the Sea.