Till not very long ago, seas and oceans were nobody’s territory. In its most evolved form, certain kilometers of the sea were considered to be under the jurisdiction of the land governance to which it was connected.
Be that as it may, even the regulatory and administrative provisions of the laws and regulations of the land were often silent on what the issues were of the sea. In few cases that the laws could be extrapolated the provisions were often weak, ambiguous or irrelevant to the concerns of the ocean in some cases it added to the complexity of interpretation and application.
Further, there were overlapping area of jurisdiction because the stretch of the sea was not broad enough to demarcate the jurisdiction. This lead to unsavory situations with avoidable conflicts emerging. The stronger nation pushed and often got away with dominance which was neither fair to common sense or equity.
The coming of courts for justice in matters related to the sea did not go very far because of many reasons. For one the legal precedents in matters of the sea were...
