Maritime security: the conflict between national and supranational approaches
The practical experience of implementation of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea shows that it contains some legal gaps and cannot address a number of challenges and threats. This leads coastal states to strengthen their domestic laws, resulting in expansion of their respective powers in contiguous waters. At the same time, international organizations and institutions, as well as the United States, support collective efforts to counteract these new threats, which may sometimes violate the principle of state sovereignty as one of the mainstays of the Westphalian system of international relations. In this context, the main question is how such national and supranational efforts are consistent with International Law of the Sea and in which spheres their use is justified to guarantee collective security of all members of the international community.