LAND-LOCKED STATES &

THE LAW OF THE SEA

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E. Jill Parlett

Towson University

        About one fifth of all States in the global community are land-locked.  According to many international relations texts,  land-locked States are defined as those having no seacoast whatsoever.  In order to gain access to the sea, they must pass through one or more States called Transit States1/.  Examples of land-locked nations include, but are not limited to: Botswana, Chad, Zambia, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Nepal, Bolivia, and Paraguay.  It is not a coincidence that the above list includes mostly less developed countries.  As the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) concluded:

Land-locked developing countries are generally among the very poorest of the developing countries.  The lack of a territorial access to the sea, compounded by  remoteness and isolation from the world markets, appears to be an important cause  of their relative poverty,  and constitutes a major obstacle to their development.   Indeed, all but four of the 20 land-locked developing countries are on the list of  countries identified by the United Nations as the least developed (UN Doc. 1976: TD/191).

     One of the most disadvantageous features of being land-locked is the lack of a seaport.  Seaports play a very important role in the development process of any country (Sinjela 1983: 69).  Without a seaport, land-locked States must depend on the use of neighboring coastal States ports for their imports and exports.  This leads to the issue of equal treatment in ports for land-locked States.  Any deprivation or indirect refusal of access to ports is tantamount to a denial of freedom of the high seas (Sinjela 1983: 70).   Efforts to grant equality in maritime ports date back to 1923 with the Statute of the Convention on International Regime of maritime ports.  Article 131 of the 1980 Draft Convention on Law of the Sea states that, “Ships flying the flag of land-locked States shall enjoy treatment equal to that accorded to other foreign ships in maritime ports.” Bilateral agreements between coastal and land-locked States also allow for equal access for land-locked States to the sea via maritime ports.  In fact,  a document endorsed by the Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD pointed out that, “the use of international agreements has long been a successful instrument in promoting an efficient and reliable transit transport system and land-locked and transit developing countries should consider further enhancing efforts to adhere to those agreements.”

        Part VII of the UNCLOS is dedicated to the high seas.  According to the Convention, all nations reserve freedom of the high seas which includes, freedom of navigation, freedom of over flight, freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines, freedom to construct artificial islands and other installations, freedom of fishing, and freedom of scientific research.  The high seas is often defined as all parts of the sea that are not included in the exclusive economic zone, in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a State, or in the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic State.  Under the Convention, land-locked States are also granted freedom of innocent passage through a coastal State's territorial water in order to access the high seas.

        When discussing land-locked States, the topic of access to marine resources must be addressed.  As Roger Ravelle stated, “Scientific research into the oceans, including the ocean bottoms, is perhaps the most significant of all relevant activities, because it relates directly to improvement in all other uses and to invention of new uses.”  It is essential for land-locked nations to have access to scientific knowledge in order to enjoy any benefits from the sea.  Because land-locked nations tend to be less developed, they are put at a great disadvantage concerning exploiting sea-bed resources.  Although scientific research is a res communis commodity, it is normally reserved for those developed nations with large budgets to fund expensive projects.  In response to this problem, some delegates, during the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, declared that, in order to increase the benefits of the sea for all mankind, there should be free flow of data on pure research, without restriction.  For years, land-locked nations have fought to ensure that they play a full part in the international sea-bed regime and do not suffer because of their geographical situations.  The Law of the Sea Convention contains provisions specifically targeted toward promoting the interests of land-locked States.  Article 152 calls for the International Sea Bed Authority is to give special consideration to land-locked States in helping them to  overcome obstacles arising from their location and the remoteness of the Area and difficulty accessing it.  The Law of the Sea Convention also allows for six members on the Council to be elected among land-locked developing nations (Churchill 1983: 319).

        Although the Law of the Sea Convention calls for a more equitable utilization of the ocean's resources, the quest by land-locked Sates for free and equal access is not finished.  The Convention will help facilitate their ability to make arrangements with their coastal neighbors to exercise their right to access the seas.  However,  land-locked States must continue to negotiate for greater rights whenever possible.  In the future, the ocean's resources will become more important to the lives of all citizens of the world community.  Land-locked developing States must establish their rights concerning research and usage of the these resources.

1. The term transit state means in its most general sense any state through which goods or passengers pass in transit to or from another state.  In the United Nations Convention on Transit Trade of land-locked States, however, it is defined as "any Contracting state with or without a seacoast, situated between a land-locked State and the sea, through whose territory traffic in transit passes" (Glassner1970: 3). Return to Text