The Baltic Sea: Mare Clausum or Mare Liberum?
| Date | 01 March 1974 |
| Author | Toivo Miljan |
| DOI | 10.1177/001083677400900103 |
| Published date | 01 March 1974 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The
Baltic
Sea:
Mare
Clausum
or
Mare
Liberum?
TOIVO
MILJAN
Wilfrid
Laurier
University,
Waterloo,
Ontario,
Canada
Miljan,
T.
The
Baltic
Sea:
Mare
Clausum
or
Mare
Liberum?
Cooperation
and
Conflict,
IX,
1974,
19-28.
The
article
analyzes
the
legal
and
political
standing
of
the
Soviet
juridical
theory
of
mare
clausum
as
applied
to
the
Baltic
Sea.
Soviet
juridical
views
regarding
the
Baltic
Sea
as
a
closed
sea
and
the
Baltic
Straits
as
closed
straits
appear
to
be
built
on
three
foundations:
the
argument
of
security
for
the
Soviet
Union
and
other
Baltic
littoral
states;
Soviet
juridical
theorizing
on
the
doctrine
of
mare
clausum;
and
the
Soviet
in-
terpretation
of
the
history
of
international
agreements
regarding
the
Baltic
Straits.
All
three
arguments
are
valid
from
the
Soviet
point
of
view;
but,
equally,
all
three
argu-
ments
are
invalid
from
the
Western
point
of
view.
After
an
initial
presentation
of
the
Soviet
position,
the
article
analyzes
the
doctrine
of
mare
clausum
in
Western
legal
literature
and
refutes
the
Soviet
historical
interpretation
of
Baltic
Straits
agreements.
Discrepancies
between
the
Soviet
juristic
arguments
and
Soviet
actions
of
the
past
fifty
years
lead
to
the
conclusion
that
Soviet
policies
relating
to
the
Baltic
Sea
are
oriented
towards
twin
objectives:
to
secure
full
freedom
of
navigation
for
Soviet
and
allied
ships;
and,
to
extend
its
control
over
the
Baltic
Sea.
Toivo
Milian,
Wilfrid
Laurier
University,
Waterloo,
Ontario,
Canada.
I
Historically,
the
international
legal
regime
of
the
Baltic
Sea
has
been
determined
by
the
interests
of
its
littoral
powers.
Suc-
cessively,
the
main
actors
have
been
the
Hanseatic
League,
the
Teutonic
Order,
the
kingdoms
of
Denmark,
Sweden
and
Poland,
and
more
recently
Russia,
Ger-
many
and
Great
Britain,
the
latter
not
as
a
littoral
state
but
as
a
great
power
con-
cerned
with
the
balance
of
power
in
Europe.
With
the
decline
in
power
of
Denmark,
Sweden
and
Poland,
Britain
and
Germany
exerted
an
effective
restraint
on
the
growing
ambitions
of
Czarist
Russia
to
control
the
Baltic.
After
the
Second
World
War,
the
elimi-
nation
of
German
power
and
the
sharp
decline
in
British
power,
the
Soviet
ad-
vance
into
central
Europe
renewed
Soviet
ambitions
for
extension
of
control
over
the
Baltic
Sea.
The
reorganization
of
the
international
political
system
into
bipolar-
ity
has
also
drawn
western
Europe
and
even
the
United
States,
as
a
consequence
of
its
NATO
Alliance,
into
the
Baltic
Sea
sphere.
This
has,
of
course,
resulted
in
a
bipolarization
of
Baltic
powers
and
a
con-
sequent
bifurcation
of
interpretations
of
the
international
legal
regime
to
be
ap-
plied
to
the
Baltic
Sea.
More
specifically,
there
is
unmistakable
evidence
to
support
the
view
that
the
Soviet
Union,
in
partic-
ular,
is
advancing
concepts
and
philoso-
phies
of
law
which
differ
markedly
from
past
and
present
practice
of
International
Law
as
it
applies
to
the
Baltic
Sea.
These,
if
adopted
by
other
powers
with
interests
in
the
Baltic,
would
lead
to
a
reversal
of
the
current
position
of
the
Baltic
Sea
as
a
mare
liberum,
to
a
mare
clausum.
The
latter
would,
in
fact,
mean
the
turning
of
the
Baltic
Sea
into
a
Soviet
sea
and
the
legal
sanctioning
of
the
extension
of
Soviet
political
power
to
the
very
gates
of
the
North
Sea.
It
must
be
pointed
out
that
for
the
Soviet
Union
the
question
of
access
to
the
open
sea,
and
the
control
of
that
access,
is
a
serious
matter
since
all
of
the
seas
bor-
dering
the
USSR
have
narrow
entrances
which
can
be
commanded
easily
by
hostile
powers.
This
is
also
the
case
with
the
Baltic
Sea.
In
order
to
travel
from
the
Baltic
Sea
to
the
North
Sea,
all
maritime
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