Search: UNCLOS
28 Aug Non-Syria News: Update on that Philippines-China Arbitration
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...
08 Nov Can National Laws on Space Resources Serve as Evidence of Customary International Law?
...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...28 Sep A Treaty-Happy Senate?
...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...17 Nov Universal Treaty Law
...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...12 Nov Doesn’t the U.S. Senate Care about Mercury?
...Administration decide to bypass the Senate in consenting to the Minamata Convention? Perhaps the Senate indicated to the Obama Administration that they would not object to having this treaty concluded as an executive agreement? Or, maybe the statutory authority (would love further details on what it is) is more robust than in the ACTA context. Alternatively, I wonder, if this isn’t the Obama Administration response to the Senate’s repeated intransigence lately to approve any of the Administration’s major treaty priorities; from the Disabilities Convention to UNCLOS, the Senate’s been pretty...
27 Nov Finding the Human-Nature Equilibrium: A Reply to Nivia
...Law of the Sea is arguably the most comprehensive when it comes to the basics of sustainable development as in addition to a section for conservation of the high seas (Part VII, Section 2), the entire text embodies a collective spirit upon which modern ideals of sustainability, like that codified by the 1992 Rio Declaration, are built. UNCLOS and the treaties under its regime all share the same remarkable trait; they open the widest doors of opportunity for parties wishing to reap economic benefits from the sea so long as...21 May What’s your FILA (Favorite International Law Acronym)?
...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,...18 Jan Weekend Roundup: January 4-17, 2014
...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...25 Sep What’s the Object and Purpose of the Arms Trade Treaty?
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...24 Sep Russia May Charge Greenpeace Activists with Piracy; Will They Cite the Ninth Circuit? (Updated)
...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...