Marine scientific research has not lost any of its significance for the world of today and might become even more important for the future as the knowledge in this area will be crucial for management decisions in most areas of human life. Lithuania being the coastal state should be strongly motivated to create favourable conditions for carrying out MSR. The provisions of Part XIII, 1982 UNCLOS, set out specific rights and obligations for coastal and researching States and provide guidelines on how these rights and obligations should be implemented through negotiated access by foreign research vessels into the maritime zones under coastal State sovereign rights and jurisdiction. However, there is no evidence of successful UNCLOS implementation into national law of the Republic of Lithuania. The MSR regime remains nominal for lack of practical implementation. Though the UNCLOS is considered to represent the predominant international MSR regime, there are still provisions requiring a liberal interpretation, which could be enabled both by States enacting appropriate formulations and procedures in their national legislation and by commissions and international organizations developing guidelines and standardized procedures. The study has been structured in three parts which are further outlined in chapters representing the most relevant issues of the topic under discussion. Part 1 explores the historical development of marine science regulation indicating the origin and... [to full text]