(a) the safety of traffic and the protection of channels and buoys;
(b) the protection of waters of the coastal State against pollution of any kind caused by
ships;
(c) the conservation of the living resources of the sea;
(d) the rights of fishing and hunting and analogous rights belonging to the coastal
State;
(e) any hydrographical survey.
In addition, the Commission made references to additional examples of the above
list in the Commentary. They were: use of the national flag, use of the route
prescribed for international navigation, observance of rules relating to security and
of customs as well as health regulations.^^^ However, the Commission considered
such a list open-ended and decided to merely mention them in the Commentary
without including them in the draft article itself.
The draft article 18 of the ILC was eventually carried over as art. 17 of CTS
1958 with minor alterations. As a result, it was still unclear whether any limitations
ratione materiae on the legislative jurisdiction of coastal States were implied
under CTS 1958.^^^
The ambiguity regarding coastal State legislative competence was not allowed
to persist under UNCLOS. Art. 21 of the Convention unequivocally circumscribes,
although in a permissive tone in the first paragraph, the scope of laws and
regulations that costal States may enact by exhaustively enumerating the matters
being covered. It reads as follows:
1. The coastal State may adopt laws and regulations, in conformity with the provisions
of this Convention and other rules of international law, relating to innocent passage
through the territorial sea, in respect of all or any of the following:
(a) the safety of navigation and the regulation of maritime traffic;
(b) the protection of navigational aids and facilities and other facilities or installations;
(c) the protection of cables and pipelines;
(d) the conservation of the living resources of the sea;
(e) the prevention of infringement of the fisheries laws and regulations of the coastal
State;
869
870
871