The third world and the Law of the Sea

The purpose of this Briefing Paper is to identify the interests of developing countries (LDCs) in the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The paper assesses the extent to which LDCs have achieved their particular objectives as part of the conference. It claims that the proposed new regime will not provide some of the anticipated benefits for LDCs. Nevertheless, after seven years of negotiations, agreement over the draft convention represents a remarkable achievement.