The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea Conference was convened in New York in 1973.
It ended nine years later with the adoption in 1982 of a constitution for the seas – the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. During those nine years, shuttling back and forth between New York and Geneva, representatives of more than 160 sovereign States sat down and discussed the issues, bargained and traded national rights and obligations in the course of the marathon negotiations that produced the Convention.
The Law of the Sea defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources. The Convention, concluded in 1982, replaced four 1958 treaties. UNCLOS came into force in 1994, a year after Guyana became the 60th nation to sign the treaty. As of October 2012, 164 countries and the European Union have joined in the Convention.
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