Book Reviews

Bing Bing Jia, The Regime of Straits in International Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Pp.253.

This is a welcome addition to the literature on international straits. Dr Jia has very thoroughly examined all aspects of the regime of straits: their definition, namely, the geographical (pp. 3-33) and the functional (pp. 34-58) element; the relationship between international straits and bays (pp. 59-77); the regime of passage prior to UNCLOS III (pp. 78-108); special regimes established for certain straits by special treaties (pp. 109-28 - the Turkish straits, the Danish Belts and the Sound, the straits of Magellan, Gibraltar and Tiran); and of course the main part - the regime of straits under UNCLOS III (pp. 129-67). He concludes with an interesting examination of whether the UNCLOS III regime also represents customary law (pp. 168-208). This analysis includes also a very interesting examination and evaluation of state practice. In his opinion, it is doubtful whether the unimpeded transit regime has already acquired the status of general customary law.

Dr Jia based his study on a survey of international treaties and judgments, the opinion of writers, and state practice. His method is very commendable: first he describes the problem, then he outlines the various opinions on the subject, and he concludes by stating and justifying his own opinion.

The text raises a few questions. For instance, the author seems to imply that the coastal states of a closed sea surrounded by several states and linked to the high seas by a narrow strait, may `place the sea under a claim of mare clausum' (p. 116) - a principle that is not generally recognized. The author assumes that the term "innocent passage" has the same meaning in the context of ordinary territorial sea and of territorial sea that constitutes a strait, but one could also envisage somewhat different meanings in these two contexts. In Dr Jia's opinion, straits that connect the territorial sea of a foreign state and the high seas have not yet been recognized as international straits under customary law (p. 211). However, this situation is identical with a situation where a narrow entrance leads to a sea surrounded by several states - a situation where this entrance is under customary law subject to free passage. (See P. Fauchille, Traité de droit international public, vol. 1, part 2, Peace (1925) 250, para. 506; G. Gidel, Le droit international public de la mer -Le temps de paix, vol. 111 (1934) 603. The author refers several times to the provision on passage through the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba included in the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty (pp. 22, 76, 127, 146); an identical provision has been included in the 1994 Jordan-Israel Treaty of Peace.

These few remarks are not intended to detract from the great value of Dr Jia's book and his contribution to an important and difficult subject of the law of the sea.

Ruth Lapidoth

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