The classical era: the freedom-of-the-seas doctrine (Grotius's Mare Liberum — the navigation's freedom; the ocean as the common highway) against the closed-seas claims (Mare Clausum — Selden's reply); the balance struck: the narrow maritime belt (the cannon-shot rule: the sovereignty's reach as the cannon's range — the 3-mile rule's origin). The codification era: the Hague Codification Conference 1930 (the territorial sea's first multilateral attempt); the four Geneva Conventions 1958 (the territorial sea, the high seas, the fishing, the continental shelf — the first generation's codification) — with the breadth question left unresolved; the Truman Proclamation 1945 (the continental shelf's claim — the era's trigger). The UNCLOS era: the First (1967) and Third UN Conferences on the Law of the Sea — the extended negotiations (1967-1982); the UNCLOS 1982 (the Montego Bay convention: the comprehensive "constitution"
— the 12-mile territorial sea, the 24-mile contiguous zone, the 200-mile EEZ, the shelf, the Area's common heritage, the dispute-settlement system); the 1994 Agreement (the deep-seabed mining's Part XI implementation — the developed states' objections answered); the entry into force (1994) and the near-universal membership (the major-law status). The modern developments: the fish stocks agreement 1995; the marine-environment's growth (the biodiversity-beyond- national-jurisdiction negotiations — the newest layer); the sea law's dynamic continuing character.