Search: UNCLOS
18 Jul Seasteading: Constructed Sovereignty?
...alone - not to get recognized by the UN. We certainly don't plan to ignore international law. Rather, we will try to carve out as much freedom as we can get within international law. This probably means being outside EEZs (> 200nm from any land). This means UNCLOS 60 doesn't apply, nor does UNCLOS 89 (we aren't claiming sovereignty, we are just a ship with a flag). Since the flagging nation is unlikely to protect us, it behooves any seastead to avoid doing things which will piss off existing countries....09 Jun The Battle of the South China Sea Editorials
that arbitral tribunal has the power to determine its own jurisdiction. This is just semantics in my view. What if China phrases it as something like: Arbitration is an option when mutually agreed to. Absent mutual agreement, the primary means for resolving disputes under UNCLOS is through negotiations (Article 279), exchange of views (Article 283), and conciliation procedures (Article 284). The right to opt-out of UNCLOS provided maritime boundary arbitration at any time is guaranteed by Article 298. Many nations have explicitly exercised that right include Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark,...
27 Sep Egoism on the High Seas
...A history of egoism This negotiation has been shaped by an older debate. The Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea took place against the backdrop of a broader attempt to construct a New International Economic Order. Significant parts of the treaty that was the outcome of that conference – the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) – reflected this, in particular Part XI, the seabed regime. Resources mined in seabed areas beyond national jurisdiction were the ‘Common Heritage of Mankind’, and profits...23 May U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
Here is the website for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a (very long) video of the hearings on UNCLOS and the written testimony of Secretary of State Clinton, Defense Secretary Panetta, and Gen. Dempsey. I am in grading hell right now, so I haven’t had time to go through the hearing video. It looks, from my quick glance, to be the same exact arguments that have been made over the past 20 years on UNCLOS. (Did Sen. Lugar give that same statement back in 2002? Hard to say)....
30 Oct Fourth Annual Symposium on Pop Culture and International Law: “Ruthlessness Is Mercy Upon Ourselves”? Odysseus’ War Crimes in EPIC: The Musical
...UNCLOS is especially relevant here, as it states that acts of piracy committed by a warship – whose crew has mutinied and taken control – are to be treated as piracy carried out by a private vessel. By taking control of Odysseus’ ship, Eurylochus and his followers secede from the official army of Ithaca and engage in acts of piracy. Their actions – attacking, stabbing, and detaining Odysseus – fit the “illegal violence” criterion of piracy under UNCLOS. After being stabbed unconscious, Odysseus awakens in chains on the island of...30 Aug Will China Rethink the Law of the Sea Treaty?
...My guess is that Chinese thinking is turning in a different direction, especially as its claims date from the pre-UNCLOS period and as its naval power continues to expand. This editorial in the government-approved China Daily might be indicative. As tension heats up in the South China Sea, some bordering countries insist on solving the dispute simply within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but this insistence ignores history and violates inter-temporal law, a doctrine of international law. This seems like a...16 Mar An Obama-Trudeau Agreement Conceding Canada’s Claim to the Waters of the Northwest Passage?
...Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). As a party to UNCLOS, Canada is strictly limited by Article 311 of the Convention in the extent to which it can attempt to alter the effect of UNCLOS by bilateral treaties. Any attempt to do so would have no effect on the navigation rights of Russia, the EU member-states, or any other state. Moreover, any such bilateral agreement would likely be viewed by the other coastal state members of the Arctic Council as inconsistent with the spirit of the 2008 Ilulissat...
16 Oct The Final Frontier of Cyberspace: Ensuring that Submarine Data Cables are Able to Live Long and Prosper (Part I)
...attack under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Part two will explore how the laws of armed conflict (LOAC) and the laws of naval warfare (LoNW) will (or more possibly should) treat submarine data cables for the purposes of targeting in military operations. Wilful or Negligent Damage by Vessels While Article 2 of the 1884 Paris Convention for the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables (Paris Convention), and Article 113 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) create an obligation for a state to criminalise wilful or...01 Jan Exploring International Law with Opinio Juris in 2013: Highways, Back Roads, and Uncharted Territories…
...of posts focused on the role that international law may or may not have in resolving China’s various maritime disputes (e.g., 1, 2). Others were concerned with the debacle over Russia’s detention of the crew of the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise (see, e.g., 1, 2, 3), whether US actions regarding UNCLOS are a precedent for Russia and China balking at UNCLOS dispute settlement, and various other UNCLOS related topics (such as this). And there is the issue of China’s aircraft identification zone (1, 2). The end of the year brought new...
24 Apr The Relevance of Habitability (and its Loss) for the Status of ‘Islands’
...a different view, emphasising the potential legal stability of the status of an ‘island’ notwithstanding sea-level rise effects. Antigua and Barbuda have stated that ‘sea-level rise cannot lead to the requalification of islands as rocks’, implying that the status of an ‘island’ would be undisturbed by the effects of sea-level rise. This position also underpins the view held by members of the Pacific Islands Forum and the Alliance of Small Island States that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) supports ‘maintaining maritime zones established in...