The two volumes of this Handbook provide 1400 pages of exposition and analysis of the law of the sea in the wake of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. The first volume looks at the process of codification and the various zones of maritime jurisdiction, concluding with an examination of the international sea-bed area. The second volume devotes some 600 pages to the uses of the seas and contains lengthy chapters on navigation (Chap. 17), fisheries and biological resources (Chap. 19), the preservation of the marine environment (Chap. 22), peaceful uses of the seas (Chap. 23) and dispute settlement (Chap. 15). The other chapters deal with submarine cables and pipelines (Chap. 18), marine scientific research (Chap. 20), development and transfer of marine technology (Chap. 21) and the “interference” of the rules of the law of the sea with those of the law of war (Chap. 24). With the sole exception of the first, these other chapters are all rather perfunctory. The full text of the 1982 Convention, the Final Act of UNCLOS III, a list of signatures and ratifications as at the end of December 1990, bibliographies and an index to both volumes occupy another 300 pages.

Each chapter has been written as a comparatively self-contained exposition by eminent authors, many of whom were directly involved in UNCLOS III. Inevitably, this produces a good deal of duplication but it does have the advantage of insulating the more successful sections from the inadequacies of others—and it must be said that there are several which are disappointing. Perhaps the most depressing is the chapter devoted to fisheries. A good general historical survey leads into a confusing melange. First, the author gives (and sustains for about 20 pages) the false impression that he believes that the maximum extent of a fisheries zone in current international law is, in fact, limited to 12 miles. This is redressed by the next section, which considers the regime in the 200-mile zone but which is flawed by its failure clearly to differentiate between the Exclusive Economic Zone and an Exclusive fishing zone. Not only is the material confused but, as the footnotes reveal, the bulk of the argumentation is drawn from the UNCLOS III era and gives the impression of not having been thoroughly rethought in the light of subsequent developments. It is quite extraordinary for a book published in the 1990s to hesitate over the status of the EEZ as a regime acknowledged in customary international law (p. 1063).

The chapter concerned with the preservation of the marine environment is also surprisingly unhelpful. Once again, it begins by tracing the historical development of legal regula-