The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), although it aims to regulate maritime spaces, has its origin in the political-military domain of the sea, which international law tried to regulate, based on the positions initials that prevailed in the 17th century, from that relating to the free use of the sea “Mare Liberum” by the Dutchman Hugo Grocio, to the one that supported the possibility of appropriating maritime territories “Mare Clausum”, by the Englishman John Selden; theory that was ratified by Oliver Cromwell's Navigation Act in 1651, although it was later converted according to the power of nations, especially the United Kingdom, based on its control of the sea in the 19th century.
Already in the 20th century, at the Hague Conference of 1930, the Codification of International Law began, where countries had to delimit the width of the waters of the territorial sea, without reaching any conclusion on the extension of the three miles. that prevailed, due to the opposition of the States with larger navies. However, President Truman's proclamation of 1945 opens the discussion on the 200 miles of territorial sea and different Latin American countries claim these spaces: Mexico (1945); Panama (1946); Argentina, Chile, Peru (1947); Costa Rica (1948); Salvador and Honduras (1950). In 1952 the Inter-American Juridical Committee “recognised the right of each state to establish a zone of protection, control and economic use up to a distance of two hundred nautical miles.” Uruguay (1969) and Brazil (1970) claim equal space. Argentina, in 1966 in Law 17,094, advanced, in addition to the territorial sea, the continental shelf and the underwater bed; but, suspiciously, in 1991 it was partially repealed by Law 23,968 and unusually applying terminology specific to UNCLOS that Argentina would only ratify in 1995. We will write one day about the true motivations for the sanction of Law 23,968, a kind of outdated surrender.
In 1958 and 1960, the I and II United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea was held, where although there was progress, the establishment of the width of the territorial sea where the United States favored, first of three miles and then of six.The General Assembly
