1.1 Meaning, Nature and Scope of the Law of the Sea

The meaning: the law of the sea = the international law's branch governing the oceans' uses and resources — the maritime zones' regimes, the navigation's freedoms, the resources' rights, and the marine environment's protection. The nature: a mixed creation — treaty law's core (the UNCLOS 1982 "constitution for the oceans") + customary international law's foundations (the centuries' practices: the cannon-shot rule, the freedoms' doctrine) + the institutions' law (the International Seabed Authority, the tribunals); the law of the sea as international law's most completely codified field. The scope (the zones-and-uses map): the zones — internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the EEZ, the continental shelf, the high seas, the Area (the deep seabed); the uses — navigation, fishing, mining, research, the cables' laying, the environment's protection; the actors — the coastal states, the flag states, the landlocked states (Nepal's own cause — Unit 7), the international institutions. The Nepal angle (the course's own): the landlocked state's perspective — the access rights, the transit, the shared resources' equitable use: the sea law read from Kathmandu's vantage.