"Unwavering as a lighthouse on a battered shore, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has served as a legal landmark for almost forty years now. Designed to 'settle all issues relating to the law of the sea', it sets out the framework 'within which all activities on the oceans must be carried out'. Both its substantive and spatial scope are vast; covering over 70 percent of the Earth's surface, the oceans contain 80 percent of life on Earth while sustaining the other 20 percent, and facilitate the carriage of 90 percent of the world's trade"-
