Search: UNCLOS
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,...25 Sep ITLOS Turns 10 – A Cause for Celebration?
...the rules governing the international trading system. Greater agreement over the scope and application of a normative regime would suggest fewer disputes, and fewer underlying disputes could explain the paucity of dispute settlement cases before ITLOS. Or, perhaps the reason is structural. UNCLOS Art. 287 gives state parties three choices for resolving their ocean law disputes – (1) ITLOS; (2) the ICJ; or (3) various types of arbitral tribunals constituted in accordance with UNCLOS Annexes VII or VIII. Thus, unlike the WTO’s compulsory panel/appellate body system, ITLOS faces real competition...
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...
04 Sep Rich or Poor, does it Matter? How the Wealthy are Defined in Public International Law
...climate change, things are clearer. States parties have negotiated two annexes attached to the UNFCCC. Nations that are not included in these annexes are recognized as developing countries. Some other international treaties have employed the “developed/developing” division without offering definitions. UNCLOS and ICESCR serve as examples in this regard. Nevertheless, the United Nations (UN) has furnished references for related terms found in UNCLOS, such as “developing landlocked States” (Article 69.3) and “least developed States” (Article 161.1.d). This reminds us to look at the approaches adopted by international organizations to define...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...
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)....21 Feb Is the Philippines Arbitration Claim Against China “Bizarre” and “Futile”?
As this Voice of America report notes, the Philippine government is determined to forge ahead with its UNCLOS arbitration, even though China is refusing to participate in the arbitration. This seems to be a sensible strategy, at least from a legal point of view, because it is plainly within its legal rights to do so. But would a one-party arbitration be futile? The VOA quotes Prof. Myron Nordquist of UVA on this point: But how would one-party arbitration work, exactly? Professor Myron Nordquist of the Center for Oceans Law and...