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Search: UNCLOS

07 May

...the definition of piracy adopted by the Ninth Circuit cannot meet the Supreme Court’s “Sosa” standard for requiring ATS claims to be “universal” and “specific” under international law. I think there is some force to this argument, although I find their disparagement of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea’s definition of piracy a little odd. In any event, the question may turn on the definition of “private ends” that UNCLOS requires as an element of piracy. I don’t have a strong view on this, but I refer...
07.05.15 | |

29 Nov

...sovereignty and contend that any claim to terra nullius status for the island should fail. Given Tonga’s status as an archipelago, I suspect there’s some merit to this position if one assumes the island emerged within Tonga’s existing archipelagic baselines (see, e.g., UNCLOS Arts. 46, 47 and 49, defining an “archipelago” as a “group of islands, including parts of islands, interconnecting waters . . . which are so closely interrelated that such islands, waters and other natural features form an intrinsic geographical, economic and political entity, or which historically have...
29.11.06 | |

11 Jan

When a country is brought to arbitration under a treaty, it often challenges the jurisdiction of that arbitral tribunal in arguments before that tribunal. But in recent years, we’ve seen several examples of countries that have simply chosen to “boycott” or not participate in the arbitral hearings whatsoever. China adopted this approach in its ongoing United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) arbitration with the Philippines (which it recently confirmed again this past December). Russia also followed this strategy by simply not showing up at the International...
11.01.16 | |

10 Oct

...already meet whatever obligations the United States will have under the treaty (I expect that to be the case, for example, with UNCLOS). In those cases, the non-self-executing character of the treaty is not a function of further congressional action, but of the Executive Branch’s own actions in deciding what the treaty requires and what U.S. law already does. Justice Souter took a different tack on the non-self-execution argument, asking whether the Court could be the entity to “execute” the Treaty, rather than Congress (p. 69). It’s an interesting idea,...
10.10.07 | |

01 Mar

Glacier Dear Julian, I read you post concerning Goodbye UNCLOS Dispute Settlement? China Walks Away from UNCLOS Arbitration with the Philippines I am very interested to find out that you said " They have never exactly spelled out what they mean by having “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea." But as I found out what the Chinese said is always "China has indisputable sovereignty over South China Sea islands". Then I understand is the sovereignty is concerning the islands, not the sea. So if this is the case, I...
01.03.13 | |

10 Apr

Commentary on the Rules of the Tribunal, published in 2006 and contributed to by a number of ITLOS members, two views are presented: One, that there is no legal basis for Rule 138 since UNCLOS expressly confers advisory jurisdiction only on the Seabed Disputes Chamber, and the opposing view, that nothing in UNCLOS would preclude the ITLOS full court from exercising advisory jurisdiction. It seems highly unlikely that ITLOS would decline to exercise the advisory jurisdiction requested of it by the Sub Regional Fisheries Commission. In which case this will...
10.04.13 | |

01 May

...Around: How UNCLOS Ratification Will Herald Europe's Precautionary Principle as US Law. This article is intended to educate the American public about the complexity of the UNCLOS, especially its vast environmental component. It is also intended to prompt the American public to demand that Congress convene public hearings to investigate UNCLOS' environmental component. This article describes how US sovereignty and US individual constitutional rights can be subjugated to and overriden, under the right political circumstances, by foreign and international legal norms when US congressional representatives officials within the US Senate...
01.05.09 | |

17 Sep

BattleJAG Perhaps it was the juxtaposition of the UNCLOS and AUMF/Detention posts, but I see kindred arguments in favor of both. Although the U.S. Navy asserts that the navigational regime under UNCLOS reflects Customary International Law (CIL), nevertheless Iran (especially the prickly Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy) persists in harassing U.S. Navy ships engaged in transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz into the Arabian Gulf (perhaps to demonstrate Iran's persistent objection to U.S. assertions). Becoming a State Party to UNCLOS would put U.S. ships on a firmer footing under...
17.09.11 | |

13 Nov

Mariano Aznar When and how Argentina "has expressly waived its immunity defenses"? I haven't seen this... AGW Mariano, I understand that the terms of the Argentinian bonds included an unconditional waiver - see Julian's earlier post: https://opiniojuris.org/2012/10/15/dont-cry-for-the-worlds-greatest-sovereign-deadbeat/ Phu Nguyen ITLOS has just spread the news on the new case http://www.itlos.org/index.php?id=222&L=0. As the Argentine's application is not yet published, it's curious to see how the Argentine invokes the UNCLOS. Alejandro Turyn Here there is a quick response directly from the law and from the Press Release: "Argentina emphasizes that the ARA...
13.11.12 | |

27 Oct

...am not an expert on maritime law, can anyone here at OJ (or other commenters) explain what these "difficulties" might be, specifically what the UNCLOS says about the use of force on the high seas? Jennifer Nathan -- Art. 107 of UNCLOS permits seizures of pirates and pirated vessels on the high seas by "warships or military aircraft, or other ships or aircraft clearly marked and identifiable as being on government service and authorized to that effect." However, that only applies on the high seas, not in Somali territorial seas....
27.10.08 | |

09 Feb

...of law. Do we want to manage this problem through what some would call the extra-legal processes of the UN Security Council? Perhaps we should be looking to restructure the UNCLOS and create a workable legal regime governing piracy. I do agree with you regarding your last comment and suggest that it is already true, at least in part. It seems to me that the war criminals of the world do have very little to fear if they are not captured by their enemy and their actions are not part...
09.02.09 | |

01 Jul

Eugene Kontorovich Sounds unbelievable to me. Russian plutocrats don't have to go so far to find people to kill, or expose themselves to such risk. Someone is probably just trying to raise attention for their cruse businesses. If it were true, it would be illegal, unless it is self-defense; and "pirate hunting" doesn't sound like self-defense. UNCLOS Art. 107 provides only warships can seize pirates; one could extrapolate that that would be true of killing them too. Indeed, what the alleged pirate hunters are doing meets the definition of piracy!...
01.07.09 | |