The States comprising the European Union include a number of the most influential maritime nations whose diplomacy and State practice has had a significant impact upon the development of the law of the sea. This volume brings together a series of essays which set out and explore the current pattern of legal regulation of maritime spaces in 14 of the 15 EU members, each written by a national expert. Luxembourg is the only State omitted, though its legislation concerning nationality of vessels is touched on in the chapter dealing with Belgium. The work also includes an opening chapter looking at the approach of the European Community to the law of the sea. This is written in French, as are the chapters dealing with France, Portugal and Spain. Each chapter (except the first) draws on a common format to a greater or lesser extent: after some opening remarks, sections are devoted to baselines, the territorial sea, straits, the contiguous and other non-resource zones, fisheries and exclusive economic zones, the continental shelf, the high seas, the international seabed area, delimitation of maritime zones, the marine environment and maritime scientific research. Some address the whole card in varying degrees of detail, from the fairly exhaustive treatment given to Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, through the thorough though rather matter-of-fact coverage of the UK and Italy, to the more generalist coverage of Sweden and Finland. It is obvious that the chapter dealing with Austria would be rather truncated, but it may be more surprising that the chapters on Denmark and particularly Germany would not be quite so inclusive. Even if there is nothing to say, it is sometimes helpful to say so.

Even though adhering to a fairly uniform structure, each contribution manages to give a good flavour of the national interests and priorities. For example, it is difficult not to notice the lack of enthusiasm exhibited for the regime of transit passage in the chapter dealing with Greece, which compares most markedly with the welcome given to the UK/France agreement concerning transit passage in the Straits of Dover by Belgium and the Netherlands. Indeed, one of the most interesting features of this work is the way it permits a ready comparison of the differing attitudes of EU Member States to some of the principal controversies in the contemporary law of the sea—such as conditions for the registry of vessels and the exercise of the right of innocent passage by warships. As regards registry, all States have had to respond to the demands of EC law, but significant