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Search: UNCLOS

03 Nov

...but my sense is that the district court opinion is intended to aid the Fourth Circuit in reaching what I think is the correct result in Said — that the treaty language is controlling. Since Somalia is a party to UNCLOS (as are 160 other nations), it hardly seems unfair to consider the pirates to have fair notice of its provisions, whereas it seems more of a stretch to consider them on notice of an 1820 decision of a foreign supreme court. Judge Davis’s opinion in Hasan is available here....
03.11.10 | |

13 May

...the same time it is forbidden under UNCLOS from hampering transit passage in any way and is by law required to give publicity to any danger to navigation. In its Wimbledon Case the PCIJ ruled that there was a general rule embodied in Art. 380 of the Treaty of Versailles granting full access to vessels of commerce and war to the Kiel Canal. As Germany is the only country that has control over this waterway it holds a dominant position. The same goes for the 1901 Hay-Pauncefote treaty on the...
13.05.22 | |

02 Jul

...folks at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg — including Chinese and Russian judges! —, who (again, in theory) might “use a legal dispute to score points against American ‘unilateralism’ and ‘arrogance’ for a global audience keen to humble the United States” and find American anti-terrorism operations on the high seas inconsistent with UNCLOS. Sounds pretty unlikely to me, in the same way that the ICC was never going to haul US servicemembers into the dock, at least not anytime soon. Remember, ITLOS is a...
02.07.07 | |

25 Sep

...target stricter and accurate, but the obligations become determinable and assessable, a situation which may not bring comfort to States aiming for flexibility but turn out to be instrumental for the fight against the climate change crisis. Regarding the Law of the Sea, the Court concludes that although the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea explicitly requires the protection of the marine environment, it must be understood that the global climate system falls within the scope of this marine environment. Consequently, states party to UNCLOS are obliged...
25.09.25 | |

26 Jan

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,...
26.01.13 | |

16 Jun

...has nothing to gain from accession since the most of the Convention reflects customary international law; James Kraska argued that UNCLOS is a force multiplier for American power; and John Noyes defended the Convention’s regimes on fisheries, oil and gas, and seabed minerals, as promoting US interests. On the second day of our debate, introduced here by Julian, Jeremy Rabkin cautioned against accession because of the risk that compulsory arbitration might interpret treaty rules in ways contrary to US interests. Steven Groves partially agreed with the arguments in favor of...
16.06.12 | |

16 Mar

...this is a separate matter. It does not, in my mind, justify reading a formality-condition into the text of 87(5)(b). The phrase “enters into” used in 87(5)(b) does not change my view on this. States can just as easily enter into informal arrangements or agreements as formal ones (see e.g. Articles 74(3) and 83(3) UNCLOS, by which States are to “enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature”). Would the interpretation I suggest make 87(5)(b) “bizarre or possibly counterproductive”? Let’s deal with bizarre first. I would be hard pressed to...
16.03.16 | |

22 Dec

This week on Opinio Juris, Kristen Boon followed up on her discussion last week about changes towards more transparency and fairness in the UN’s Al Qaida sanctions regime. Craig Allen contributed a guest post on the ITLOS’ interim order for the release by Ghana of Argentina’s ARA Libertad. UNCLOS was also central to Duncan Hollis’ post on China’s submission to the Continental Shelf Commission in relation to the dispute regarding the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Peggy McGuinness congratulated Diane Amann, Leila Sadat and Patricia Sellers on their appointments as special advisor to...
22.12.12 | |

15 Nov

...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...
15.11.07 | |

11 Apr

...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,...
11.04.16 | |

21 Apr

...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...
21.04.12 | |

27 Oct

...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...
27.10.06 | |