Abstract
Paper deals with development of the law of the seas and claims of coastal states to gain control over areas adjacent to their coast. Historical overview of the law of the sea evolution brings reader to the disputes between partisans of mare liberum on the one side and mare clausum on the other side.
Both conceptions influenced further principles and thus laid foundations for current international regulation of the law of the sea. Beyond all doubts, the legal regulation of the law of the seas at the international level is closely connected with medieval discoveries and attempts of classics of international law, as the most influential representatives of the doctrine, to formulate principles, such as terra nullius, res communis omnium or common heritage of mankind which were intensively discussed by delegates of codification conference that led to the adoption of UNCLOS.
Paper, in its second part, illustrates, which, out of the above mentioned conception and principles, is reflected in UNCLOS and applies for territorial disputes in the Arctic.