The exclusive economic zone
Abstract The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) derives from the 1945 Truman proclamation on the continental shelf, though it has earlier antecedents. The new placement of about one-third of the sea under national jurisdiction has enormous implications. The benefits of the new maritime zone, for example, will not be shared equally by all coastal states, and the land-locked states lose completely resources to which they once had free access. The rights of the coastal state within its EEZ are considerable, and its obligations much fewer. The EEZ provisions in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) represent a balancing of interests, as does the system of dispute settlement specified in the Convention. The United States has not signed the Treaty on the grounds, among others, that the common heritage principle, which calls for sharing the resources under the high seas, goes against the fundamental principles of free enterprise, and that US corporations would have to give up potential profits without gaining any advantage in return. Such criticism is unsound for a number of reasons. The US claims that all of the Treaty's provisions, except for those on seabed mining, are already customary international law, but even if this were true in principle, the particular detailed provisions are probably binding only by agreement. The US cannot claim rights under the Treaty if it refuses to become a party to it, including the EEZ.
The new law of the sea and the pacific basin
Abstract The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is indispensable for the well‐being of the states, especially the new island states, of the Pacific Basin. Since the Treaty will be signed at Caracas in December 1982, it is important to anticipate its impact in the Pacific Region area. The article examines the need for a new ocean law to replace the old law of the Geneva Conventions. It argues that exploitation of manganese nodules in the “Area”; will be legal only under the rules of Part XI of the Convention and that the principles of the Common Heritage of Mankind are now part of customary law. Finally, the seaward expansion of Pacific states authorized in the new treaty both necessitates, and provides an opportunity for, coordinated planning for the management of ocean resources and usages.
The quantum particle in a box: what we can learn from classical electrodynamics
The problem of a charged particle enclosed in an infinite square potential well is analysed from the point of view of classical theory with the addition of the electromagnetic zero-point radiation field, with the aim to explore the extent to which such an analysis can contribute to enhance our understanding of the quantum behavior. First a proper treatment is made of the freely moving particle subject to the action of the radiation field, involving a frequency cutoff ωc. The jittering motion and the effective structure of the particle are sustained by the permanent action of the zero-point field. As a result, the particle interacts resonantly with the traveling field modes of frequency ωc in its proper frame of reference, which superpose to give rise to a modulated wave accompanying the particle. This is identified with the de Broglie wave, validating the choice of Compton’s frequency for ωc. For the stationary states of particles confined in the potential well, the Lorentz force produced by the accompanying field is shown to lead to discrete values for the mean speed and to an uneven probability distribution that echoes the corresponding quantum distribution. The relevance of the results obtained and the limitations of the classical approach used, are discussed in the context of present-day stochastic electrodynamics.