Chapter

Legal aspects of arms control measures concerning the missile carrying submarines and anti-submarine warfare

Richard Baxter

Humanizing the laws of war : selected writings of Richard Baxter

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013

p. 219-231

English

Article également publié dans : The future of the sea-based deterrent, ed. by Kosta Tsipis, Anne H. Cahn and Bernard T. Field, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1974

This article, first published in 1974, examines the existing laws pertaining to the use of the sea, with specific attention given to the legal treatment of missile carrying submarines and anti-submarine warfare. The author cautions that the legal changes ongoing at the time meant that he is only able to address “trends, positions, projections, and probabilities” as to the future of maritime law. He begins by discussing the law of the sea in times of peace, highlighting the controversies surrounding the definitions of high seas, straight baselines, territorial seas, straights, and other offshore areas. He explains that these definitions impact the legal treatment of any given area of sea and, as a result, different countries argue for different definitions. At the time, the United States and the USSR were particularly concerned with how maritime characterization would affect their ability to transit warships as well as surveil and conceal submarines. The author argues that the state of law regarding submarines and antisubmarine warfare was uncertain and outdated. He notes that the laws governing submarines in times of war were, in principle, the same as those governing surface vessels and that there was virtually no specific regulation of antisubmarine weapons. [Summary by students at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (IHRP)]

• Humanizing the laws of war : selected writings of Richard Baxter / Richard R. Baxter ; Detlev F. Vagts...[et al.]