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Navigational Rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the Context of the 'Maritime Silk Road'

Over 90% of the world trade is transacted by means of international shipping across the world's seas and oceans. Free and unimpeded trade is also at the heart of China's 'Belt and Road Initiative'. The Initiative envisages, as one of its two building blocks, the furtherance and construction of a '21st-Century Maritime Silk Road' with the aim that it extends "from China's coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China's coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other." It is submitted that the navigational freedoms, as guaranteed under international law, are crucial for the further development and ultimate success of the Maritime Silk Road. The navigational freedoms enjoyed by ships on the world's seas and oceans are today codified in the widely accepted 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) which may indeed be regarded as the 'constitution for the oceans'. To be sure, the balance between navigational freedoms and the national interests of coastal States has always been a critical issue. The examination of the navigational rights under the LOSC, undertaken in the present paper, seems warranted in order to show, on the one hand, how this balance was achieved and, on the other, how important navigational freedoms are for the free trade and communication between the nations of the world.

'Belt and Road Initiative' ; '21st-Century Maritime Silk Road' ; UN Convention on the Law of the Sea ; navigational rights

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