This substantial volume is the first part of the final instalment of the Commentary upon the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention prepared under the auspices of the Centre for Oceans Law and Policy at the University of Virginia School of Law. It embarks upon the coverage of the work of the Second Committee of UNCLOS III, which dealt with the bulk of “traditional” law of the sea and which was responsible for Arts 1–132 of the Convention. For convenience of presentation, the Commentary presents this material in two volumes. This current volume is the first to appear and covers Arts 1–85, as well as Annexes I and II and Annex II to the Final Act of the Conference. The subject-matter of these Articles therefore embraces the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone (including Innocent Passage), Straits used for International Navigation (including the regime of Transit Passage), rules relating to Archipelagic Staes, the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf.

The volume opens with a useful guide to the Conference documentation and a fairly concise (23–page) essay which gives an overview of the work of the Second Committee. Following the pattern established in previous volumes, each Article of the Convention is reproduced and its source documentation listed. This is followed by an examination of the drafting history, which often quotes extensively from the sources listed. This is helpful, since the sources drawn upon include not only the official conference documentation but also unofficial documentation, the bulk of which has been reproduced in the 19-volume collection edited by Platzöder but which may not be readily available to all users of the Commentary. In addition, since many of the Articles under consideration originated in the work of the ILC and the earlier UN conferences on the law of the sea, summary references to these sources are also included where relevant. This helps the user identify those Articles which were not just the product of UNCLOS III but which already had an established pedigree.

The sources utilized do not go beyond the documentation, official or unofficial, associated with the Conferences. While the reasons for this are fully understandable, this does occasionally produce