International ocean shipping constitutes a highly significant aspect of world economic and political relationships. The rapid growth in world trade and the emergence of new national entities in the last 30 years have further emphasized the role of international shipping. Because of the generally free environment in which it has operated, the industry is highly mobile and flexible—characteristics that, together with technological progress, have facilitated the rapid growth in world trade. In recent years, however, there have been several technological and institutional developments that are likely to have major efforts on the industry. One of the latter is the aggregation of conventions and practices known as the Law of the Sea, which has been discussed in the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea since 1958. The third UNCLOS began in 1974 and concluded when a treaty was issued on April 30, 1982. The treaty will enter in force when 60 nations have ratified it. How soon that will happen is, of course, not possible to say. What can be said is that a new legal structure governing the oceans appears to be evolving, with traditional principles giving way to new concepts. Since the environment in which an industry operates determines its structure and mode of operations, international shipping has been molded by the conventional principles governing the use of the oceans as highways and will be affected by shifts in the international climate and changes in the Law of Sea. Ocean shipping, as we know it today, has developed under the concepts of 'freedom of the seas' and limited territorial waters with the rights of 'innocent passage.' Clearly, a new Law of the Sea derived from a reinterpretation of these concepts will significantly change the atmosphere in which the shipping industry operates and, accordingly, dictate revised policies and practices for both industry and public authorities. Minimally, ship operations must consider changes in the definitions of what constitutes the high seas. They must consider the corresponding changes in the jurisdiction of shipping lanes and coastal and open waters compliance with rules for environmental protection and vessel traffic controls in some areas. (355w) According to the author, international ocean shipping ______.