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Search: UNCLOS

25 Nov

...the dispute and that Russia would therefore not participate in the proceedings. Nevertheless, on November 6th, ITLOS held a public hearing at its Hamburg chambers (without Russia) and issued its order on November 22nd. Before reaching its decision, the tribunal had to address several preliminary issues. The first concerned jurisdiction under UNCLOS. A threshold issue in the tribunal’s jurisdiction analysis was a 1997 declaration by Russia when it ratified UNCLOS in which it stated that it would not accept the convention’s compulsory settlement procedures for “disputes concerning law-enforcement activities in...
25.11.13 | |

09 Aug

...misleading. Piracy is not directly criminalised under international law: customary law and the UNCLOS regime neither provide for individual criminal responsibility for piratical acts nor proscribe the piratical conduct. Article 101 of the UNCLOS merely defines the offence. Notwithstanding the fact that national courts may directly apply the UNCLOS definition when constitutional arrangements allow so, piracy generally needs to be criminalised domestically in order to be adjudicated upon by national courts. The UNCLOS primarily sets out an obligation for states to adopt the necessary national criminal law establishing individual criminal...
09.08.13 | |

09 Nov

...not indicate that such ongoing activities did not violate the obligation under Article 83(3) of UNCLOS. It is a pity that the Special Chamber missed the opportunity to further address the compliance of Ghana’s unilateral oil activities in the disputed marine area with Article 83(3) of UNCLOS. Côte d’Ivoire had requested the Special Chamber to declare that unilateral activities undertaken by Ghana after the issuance of the provisional measures “in the Ivorian maritime area” constituted a violation of the obligation not to jeopardize or hamper the reaching of the final...
09.11.17 | |

22 Jul

jurisdiction. Italy’s claim of immunity for the marines was based ultimately, not on any provision of the UNCLOS, but on alleged customary international law. I say “ultimately” because Italy did refer to UNCLOS Articles 2(3), 56(2), 58(2), 95, 96 and 297(1), in support of immunity, but those arguments were summarily rejected by the Tribunal, leaving the question of immunity to be decided with reference to international law outside UNCLOS (Award, paras. 797-802). This claim was the focus of two different jurisdictional objections by India. Under Article 288(1) of the UNCLOS,...
22.07.20 | |

18 Jul

...and digital identity manipulation work at different target levels. The former manipulates recorded details while the latter miscommunicates transient information. Nationality, identified by the flag, is a related concept with distinct jurisdictional significance, yet not clearly distinguished in enforcement practice. Manipulation of identity is conflated with nationality manipulation and broadly categorised under false flag, creating an unwarranted tendency to infer statelessness, despite the high threshold under UNCLOS. Such conflations risk treating a digitally manipulated ship as stateless, thereby triggering Article 110 interdiction powers beyond the narrow circumstances contemplated by UNCLOS. ...
18.07.26 | |

02 Dec

...ICJ’s decision may lead the court astray in the future, especially when 2016 Nicaragua v. Colombia is waiting on the docket. Rethinking the Jurisdiction Obstacle Since the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (the ‘ITLOS’) took a lead in Bangladesh v. Myanmar, it now seems undisputed that the CLCS’s recommendation concerning delineation under Art. 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (the ‘UNCLOS’) does not preclude international courts and tribunals from establishing jurisdiction and admissibility concerning delimitation under Art. 83 of the UNCLOS. As...
02.12.21 | |

17 Feb

considered to be permissive rather than mandatory, so I don't see this as fairly construed to prohibit another state from exercising this authority. The U.S. captured a group of pirates in this region back in 2006 and transferred them to Kenya for trial and I'm unaware of any nation objecting to Kenyan jurisdiction. Eugene Kontorovich While the US has not ratified UNCLOS III, it is a party to the 1956 UNCLOS I, which contains an identical provision, so it is certainly bound. I agree that "may" is permissive in regard...
17.02.09 | |

09 Oct

to see if this is a position that the McCain-Palin ticket will embrace. Assuming that they will not backtrack on Governor Palin’s strong support of UNCLOS (and, given Sen. McCain’s Navy background and the Navy’s support of UNCLOS, I hope he would support it as well), this is further evidence that ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention is gaining momentum. [UPDATE #2: This post over at the Washington Note focuses on John McCain’s flip-flopping on UNCLOS and even includes an image capture of the questionairre he answered for...
09.10.08 | |

15 Mar

the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention — lays out a comprehensive set of rules governing ocean issues, including protection of marine environments. All Arctic nations except the U.S. have signed. “If this were a ball game,” one Coast Guard admiral told me, “the U.S. wouldn’t be on the field or even in the stadium.” This seems right to me, and is a compelling reason for joining UNCLOS that may overcome objections in the U.S. Senate. Having said that, if the U.S. does not join UNCLOS, it is of course...
15.03.10 | |

18 Jul

Regarding China's right to the islands within its EEZ, they are not doing anything illegal under UNCLOS. Although the dispute is real, the island building conforms to UNCLOS. China is within the limits of the 200 Nautical Mile EEZ. China-- to be clear-- is abiding by the rules it signed when ratifying UNCLOS-- what the Philippines is doing is applying a narrow reading of only the 12-nautical mile baseline, excluding an entire Chapter of UNCLOS on the EEZ which Article 46 1(b) gives China the right to the "establishment and...
18.07.16 | |

15 Jan

...in lesser-known foreign affairs issues. Still, I value these hearings not simply because they give a sense of what the nominee will be like as Secretary, but also for the signals the hearings send about what topics are on the rise in terms of priority and attention for both the State Department and the SFRC. To that end, I was interested to see what treaties came up during Tuesday’s hearing. Three in particular caught my attention: (1) START extension talks; (2) the CTBT; and (3) UNCLOS. Newly-minted SFRC chair John...
15.01.09 | |

16 Jul

It’s official. US ratification of UNCLOS is dead (at least for this year). And, perhaps more significantly, the treaty was sunk by two senators, Robert Portman and Kelly Ayotte, both of whom appear to be on Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential short list. Their announcements, in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, brings the number of announced U.S. Senators opposing US ratification to 34. This effectively kills UNCLOS for this Congress. The joint letter by Senators Portman and Ayotte cites most of the same objections set forth ably...
16.07.12 | |