Search: UNCLOS

...for the US to accede to UNCLOS as a way to assert leadership and push back China’s claims in the East and South China Seas. In two guest posts, Lorenzo Kamel compared the EU’s approach to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories with its approach to Northern Cyprus and Western Sahara. Further on Israel and Palestine, Eliav Lieblich discussed a recent court hearing in which Israel is trying to revive maritime prize law against a Finnish ship intercepted when it tried to breach the Gaza blockade. We engaged in cross-blog...

I’ve been surprised how quiet the Obama Administration has been in terms of treaty actions in its 5 years in office — you can pretty much count on one hand the number of treaties that have gone through the Senate Advice and Consent process (and nothing at all has happened this Congress). Now, some of the blame for this certainly rests with a recalcitrant (some might say new-sovereigntist) minority of U.S. Senators (see, e.g., UNCLOS and the UN Disabilities Convention fights). Still, the reality of the last few years has...

...Fordham University Law School. “That requires stealing things and the intention of stealing things.” But current definitions of piracy don’t require an intention for financial enrichment. Rather, as we noted back in February when the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against anti-whaling protestors for attacking Japanese whalers, UNCLOS requires only that the attackers be acting for “private ends.” As Kevin argued in his post, there is reason to believe that “private ends” does not include “politically motivated” acts (although Eugene Kontorovich has a good rebuttal of...

...zones, their limits back in 1968 and now after UNCLOS, the application of the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of 1958 (ratified by Italy in 1964), the regime of the high seas, and the nature and status of artificial islands (for he thought of a sand island but found it technically impossible so he finally made it of steel). —Can you imagine? Our own island, where we can do what the hell we want. Where we can live by our own rules. That’s why Giorgio and...

...international two-day conference at the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The conference, organized in partnership with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Université catholique de Louvain-Mons (UCL-Mons) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, will bring together expert scholars from within and without Europe, as well as practitioners and civil servants (e.g., ITLOS, International Seabed Authority, FAO). Four different panels will address the importance of UNCLOS for the maintenance of international peace and security; its importance for...

...but needs input from institutional law. Catherine Brölmann’s post also discussed the combination of contractual and institutional elements in constitutive treaties. Geir and Catherine’s posts led Duncan Hollis to reflect on how treaty law can lead to “secondary fragmentation” – fragmentation in the “rules on rules”. Christian Tams argued that this “fragmentation” indicates the limits of general treaty law which often only provides residual rules or no rules at all. In our regular posts, Julian Ku questioned whether Argentina’s claim under the UNCLOS against the seizure of its naval training...

...audio/visual submissions) here. The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2023. Calls for Applications ITLOS – Nippon Foundation Capacity Building and Training Programme 2023-2024: The ITLOS-Nippon Foundation Capacity-Building and Training Programme on Dispute Settlement under UNCLOS, July 2023 – March 2024, to be held at ITLOS (Hamburg, Germany), is welcoming applications until 31 March 2023. For more information see the flyer and website. The French call is listed below. Programme TIDM– Nippon Foundation de renforcement des capacités et de formation 2023-2024: Les personnes intéressées au Programme TIDM-Nippon Foundation de renforcement des capacités et de formation...

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,...

...the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the “constitution for the oceans” (T.T.B. Koh), was adopted more than 40 years ago. Is it more resilient in the face of today’s crises compared to other bodies of international law? Or does this body of law require further adaptability and contingent action? In an effort to address this question and in light of these dynamic developments, the UNYB issues a special call for papers providing contributors with a thematic forum to critically assess the law of the sea...

My previous posts (see here for the most recent) have explained why Judge Kozinski’s opinion in the Sea Shepherd case wrongly considers a political end to be a private end. In this post I want to highlight what is ironic — though not technically incorrect — about Judge Kozinski’s conclusion that Sea Shepherd committed an act of piracy on “the high seas.” That is an essential element of piracy; UNCLOS art. 101, for example, defines piracy as “any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed...

...of the ICCPR, and admissibility of the case seems to be misplaced. Whilst the duty to rescue reflects a duty to protect life at sea, there is a difference between law of the sea obligations and obligations emanating from human rights law. The duty to rescue under 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other treaties such as SAR Convention and the 1974 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Convention) is a law of the sea obligation, requiring no nexus of...

...the Sea that took place on Wednesday, but reportedly ended in a decision to postpone the vote until after the November elections. UNCLOS was also the theme of Peter Spiro’s post on the use of the term “sovereignty” by the American Sovereignty Campaign advocating ratification. Peter Spiro also discussed how non-state actors are increasing their influence in international organizations, including formally intergovernmental ones such as the WTO and the ITU. As every week, we also provided a list of upcoming events and the weekday news wrap. Have a nice weekend!...