The law of the sea in the Mediterranean throughout the history

Abstract

This paper presents the principal characteristics of the development of the law of the sea in the Mediterranean, from the initial historical sources to the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (1982). A centuries-long process of creating that law, which applies to all seas, the authors analyzed through the prism of its application in the Mediterranean marine spaces ‒ from the time of the Roman law and its free use of the sea for all, the lordship over the sea by the feudal sovereigns (states) in the Middle Ages, until the first traces of the contemporary law of the sea in the 17th century and codification efforts in the 20th century. A special attention is paid to the complexity of the genesis of the legal regimes and boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea.