something not to be owned, as land is, but rather as a shared resource. Behind this concept is a liberal view of sovereign equality, in which all states have equal access to the high seas, and a view of an interdependent world connected by the sea.

As the dominant naval powers of Spain and Portugal weakened, and international trade increased, Grotius' mare liberum concept would come to be the accepted custom governing sovereignty at sea.

From concept to custom to law

Freedom of navigation came to be embodied in bilateral

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