Contribución de Iberoamérica al Derecho de mar

Latin America contribution to the Law of the Sea

Abstract

The article describes the role played by the Latin-American countries and their jurists in the development of the Law of the Sea, from the call into question of the classical Law though the Santiago’s Declaration (1952), to its modernization in the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. It exposes the disparity of views between “territorialist” and “patriomonialist” States, especially after the Santo Domingo’s Declaration (1972), which elaborated the notion of the “patrimonial sea”, which was the basis for the acceptance by the Conference of the Exclusive Economic Zone. -The author who participated in the Conference as deputy-chief of the Spanish delegation- narrates the main interventions of the various Latin-American delegations about the subjects and issues dealt with by the Conference during its 11 sessions, and the way for the adoption of the 1982 Montego-Bay Convention on the Law of the Sea.