The law of the sea and the relevance of Benedetto Conforti's teachings

The purpose of this piece is to provide a brief overview of Benedetto Conforti’s work as a scholar of the law of the sea. Through a careful analysis of State practice, he justified the exercise of State power at sea on the basis of a functional approach, whereby the extent of a coastal State’s powers was to be determined in accordance with the protection of specific interests related to a coastal community. When a spatial approach prevailed in the codification of the law of the sea, Conforti, while acknowledging the evolution that had taken place, reiterated the importance of the functional approach to explain the progressive extension of State powers at sea to new areas of interest.