Search: UNCLOS

This week on Opinio Juris, Duncan was thrilled that the Supreme Court had finally reached a decision on whether to grant certiorari in Bond v United States, a case that requires revisiting Missouri v Holland. Julian though questioned whether Bond v United States will matter, although he gave his own two cents on the treaty power and federalism later. Julian clearly got more excited about the Philippines’ move towards UNCLOS arbitration in the South China Sea dispute with China, which he labelled a game-changer. In further posts on this arbitration,...

I know next to nothing about UNCLOS, but I will still amused by one the reasons the Wall Street Journal invokes today against ratifying it — customary international law: The best arguments for the treaty come from the U.S. Navy, which likes how it creates a legal framework for navigational rights. The oil and gas industry approves of provisions that create an “exclusive economic zone” for the U.S. out to 200 miles. There’s also the potential for development (with clear legal title) of resources in the deep seabed, which would...

...an international convention to ensure cooperation in the domestic prosecution of international crimes. HJ van der Merwe discussed the transformative influence of international criminal law on domestic law, and looked at the South African experience post-Apartheid. Apartheid South Africa was also central to the first ATS decision post-Kiobel, discussed by Julian, in which the Second Circuit rejected the plaintiffs’ argument. Julian further wrote about the Faroe Islands’ decision to start an UNCLOS arbitration against the EU over the latter’s decision to impose sanctions after the Faroe Islands unilaterally increased herring...

...the START treaty currently being renegotiated or the older SALT treaties or many SOFAs that exist today. And then there are competing acronyms; the earlier reference to UNCLOS has little appeal to its opponents, who prefer to refer to that treaty as LOST. So what are my FILAs? Actually, I tend to appreciate acronyms that suggest a drafting committee had a sense of humor about their project. I’m pretty sure, for example, that in devising a POPRC, the treaty-makers were not merely creating a very interesting example of international delegation,...

...with national sovereignty. America must either remain a constitutional republic or submit to international law, because it cannot do both. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and the conflict between adhering to the rule of law and obeying globalist planners is now staring us in the face.” I don’t agree, but I do like the name “globalist planners,” and I plan to steal it when I start my international consulting firm. Have candidates taken positions on other major treaties, like CEDAW, Kyoto, UNCLOS, land mines? Change in...

...a document provided by a local politician. Oceania East Timor has called in the United Nations (UNCLOS) to help resolve its bitter dispute with Australia over a permanent sea border in the oil-rich Timor Sea. New Zealand’s government on Monday said it would begin a review of its foreign trust laws after leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm highlighted vulnerabilities in its legal framework that made it a possible link in international tax avoidance structures. UN/World Global warming is shifting the way the Earth wobbles on its polar axis,...

...in Cyberspace. Julian Ku posted about the new evidence in the Center for Constitutional Rights’ International Criminal Court complaint against the Catholic Church, and was amazed by recent poll figures suggesting that Britons hold a negative view of the European Convention on Human Rights. He also discussed that the Philippines are unlikely to get China to ITLOS over the South China Sea dispute because China frames its claims as territorial sovereignty rather than as an issue of the boundaries of a state’s EEZ under UNCLOS. Kevin Heller discussed a BBC...

...that Crawford originally said the UNGA “adopted” the ASR before correcting himself to indicate the UNGA had only taken note of them). At the same time, he emphasized that the ASR emerged in, and existed within, a system very much focused on the idea of unitary states. As for anyone else getting responsibility under international law, he argued that they do so by analogy to states and, even then, largely on a case-by-case basis (e.g., EC membership in UNCLOS or the WTO). Crawford explained that he didn’t see a real...

I’ve been distracted the last few days by all this Syria stuff (and a nasty case of poison ivy), so I neglected to keep up with the latest on that Philippines-China UNCLOS arbitration now seated at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Luckily, Luke Petersen of Investment Arbitration Reporter is on the case and has this great post analyzing the information released so far about the arbitration. Note that the Philippines has until March 2014 to file their memorial. This seems ridiculously long given that they’ve been preparing...

...customary international law rules being enshrined in treaties, UNCLOS being one example. The US and its partner states, beyond announcing their common interpretation of a treaty rule, can also eventually contend that there in fact exists a customary international law rule which not only helps strengthen their position but also maintains that the customary rule behind it makes it indeed the ‘correct’ interpretation, creating the consequence that it is binding on all states.The above analysis raises the question of whether a ‘sufficiently widespread’ practice of national legislation could prompt the...

...International Law Reporter has done a nice job compiling the treaty transmittal packages and Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) reports as well (see here, here, and here). With the expected exceptions of UNCLOS and its Part XI Amendment along with the Protocol to the London Dumping Convention, the Senate essentially cleared the floor of all the treaties reported favorably to it by the SFRC this Congress. There was debate and little attendant controversy over any of these treaties. It looks like all the resolutions of advice and consent came via...

...the Law of Treaties will become more important as a method to resolve potential conflicts between treaties. But I think the biggest change will be (and, again, may already be beginning) with respect to customary international law. CIL has been a useful way to bind states when there’s no treaty or the treaty has less than universal membership, but after every country in the world belongs to UNCLOS, what becomes of the customary law of the sea? When every country belongs to the Geneva Conventions, what becomes of the CIL...