International Straits of the World – serie

The relationship between straits and interoceanic canals has always been ambiguous. Unlike straits, interoceanic canals are neither natural nor subject to a universal legal regime like the Law of the Sea. However, straits and interoceanic canals share comparable historical experiences due to their geographic similarities. Suspending interest in a purely legal analysis, The Panama Canal lets logic yield to experience and considers the Panama Canal as an “artificial strait.” The volume recasts the dynamic events that have changed the Panama Canal in the context of three interactive elements: environments, flows, and territoriality. Cleverly deciphering from history how changes in one element led to changes in another, The Panama Canal suggests a considerably new perspective for viewing the canal’s past and future.

In 1986, Lewis M. Alexander, a world-renowned marine geographer, prepared for the U.S. Department of Defense a report, Navigational Restrictions within the New LOS Context: Geographical Implications for the United States.Edited by J. Ashley Roach, the reformatted report is presented in five sections and includes 20 maps, illustrating the world’s international straits and major ocean navigation routes. Forty-three tables present the most comprehensive descriptions of the world’s straits used for international navigation, as well as identify various categories of maritime claims. What made the Report extraordinarily valuable in 1986, and which makes it equally valuable today, is the compilation of geographic data - not available elsewhere - describing the world’s straits used for international navigation and illustrations of the chokepoints and major international shipping trade routes.Roach has faithfully reproduced Alexander’s seminal work by retaining the original structure and references. A table of defined terms and an index have been added.

In The Estonian Straits, Alexander Lott establishes the interrelations between the main legal categories of straits. Through this detailed and exceptional account, he provides legal classifications for the Viro Strait in the Gulf of Finland as well as the Irbe Strait and the Sea of Straits in the Gulf of Riga. Consequently, the passage rights of foreign ships and aircrafts in the northeastern part of the Baltic Sea are determined.The author demonstrates that the legal regime of the Estonian Straits has been and continues to be determined by such factors as the outer limits of maritime zones, treaties, islands, maritime boundary delimitation, domestic law on internal waters and baselines as well as geopolitical implications (particularly the concept of State continuity).

The Åland Strait is a particularly important sea route connecting the Gulf of Bothnia with the Baltic Sea between Sweden and the Åland Islands. The Åland Strait is closely connected to the Åland Islands, which were demilitarised in the international legal treaty ending the Crimean War in the 1850s. Following World War I, the Åland Strait was also regulated by the 1921 Convention relating to the Non-fortification of and Neutralisation of the Åland Islands. This book is the first to examine passage rights in the Åland Strait according to the Law of the Sea and its long history in times of war and peace.

Read also Alexander Lott's blog on the recent Award of the Annex VII Arbitral Tribunal in the dispute concerning the Kerch Strait incident.Hybrid Threats and the Law of the Sea debates the practice of states that have resorted to discriminatory navigational restrictions or aggression against foreign ships and aircraft in densely navigated straits. The book explores both widely acknowledged and lesser-known maritime incidents that meet the characteristics of hybrid warfare or hybrid conflict. This research approaches hybrid threats from the perspective of the interrelationship between navigational restrictions, law enforcement, armed attack, and the legal regime of straits. It provides guidance for determining whether the rules of armed conflict or law enforcement are applicable to various naval incidents.

Around 90% of international trade (in terms of tonnage) is carried out by sea, and these flows use the many natural or man-made straits (maritime and transoceanic canals). As both transverse and longitudinal passageways, straits play a fundamental role in maritime relations. This book takes a multidisciplinary and international approach to the Straits: legal, geographical, historical, environmental, economic and geopolitical. It examines their functions and the issues associated with them, both now and in the past, using specific examples: Artics, Dover, Gibraltar, Hormuz, Kerch, Malacca, Messina, Oresund, etc.Contributors are: F. Lasserre, A. Choquet, N. Fau, A. Trentesaux ,S. Karagiannis, C. Henry, O. Delfour-Samama, M. Lehardy, F. Mynard, M. Lo Prete, T. Vaisset, F. Schneider, F. Fontrier, A. Marino, D. Gaurier, R. Thillard, A.M. Aldawish, C. Escudé, H. Dehouck, F. Charlet, S. Gupta, G. Guyetant, J-Y Reynaud, O. Averbuc, J-P. Geib, C. Roche, F. Davansant, and C. Gibout.