UN General Assembly
1974

174. The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, preparations for which we taken a number of years, is in itself a recognition the necessity of changing the existing international maritime law in order to avoid the chaos which that law admittedly tends to promote. But change of law alone cannot guarantee peace, let alone justice. The emerging law must be equitable as well as precise. The so-called freedom of the sea must give way to precise rules of law which are designed to protect the interests of all nations, developed and developing, and to promote international co-operation for the benefit of all mankind in the exploitation and utilization of the resources and other benefits of ocean space.