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International Straits, Global Communications, And The Evolving Law Of The Sea, W. George Grandison, Virginia J. Meyer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the continuing law of the sea negotiations, strong support has developed among a majority of states for the extension of territorial seas to twelve miles. In the absence of other provisions, codification of this extension in a new law of the sea treaty will cause over 100 straits, including many of the most heavily traveled and strategically important, to be overlapped by the territorial sea. Because this will alter the pattern of international legal norms that has preserved freedom of navigation and overflight between ocean areas, considerable controversy has ensued over the question of what legal regime should govern …