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Actic Law & Policy Year In Review: 2015, Craig H. Allen, Bridgette J. Cooper, Adam Murray

Articles

A review of significant legal developments affecting the Arctic, including treaties and other international agreements; actions by the U.S. Congress, President, and other federal agencies; developments from the European Union and ten foreign countries; and several international organizations. Also addressed are themes including arctic marine shipping; indigneous residents; marine resources; military activities; polar icebreakers; pollution prevention, response, and liability; and scientific research.

"Lead In The Far North" By Acceding To The Law Of The Sea Convention, Craig H. Allen

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

This article is based on remarks given to the Arctic Encounter Symposium on Jan. 31, 2015.

"Lead In The Far North" By Acceding To The Law Of The Sea Convention, Craig H. Allen

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

This article is based on remarks given to the Arctic Encounter Symposium on Jan. 31, 2015.

Arctic Law & Policy Year In Review: 2014, Arctic Law & Policy Institute, University Of Washington

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

A categorized review of major developments, with background information and current events.

"Lead In The Far North" By Acceding To The Law Of The Sea Convention, Craig H. Allen

Articles

The theme for the 2015 Arctic Encounter Symposium was “Charting a Path to U.S. Leadership in the Far North.” I would like to begin my comments regarding U.S. leadership by reminding the audience that the Arctic is primarily a maritime domain and the fundamental rule set for international relations in the Arctic’s maritime domain is the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention), a convention to which the United States remains the most conspicuous non-party.

Proving Corporate Criminal Liability For Negligence In Vessel Management And Operations: An Allision-Oil Spill Case Study, Craig H. Allen

Articles

Maritime policy analysts often invoke the "vessel safety net" metaphor to explain the independent, but overlapping, risk management roles and responsibilities of the vessel master and crew, owner and charterer, operating company, classification society, flag state and port states. Oil spills from the 2002 M/T Prestige break up off the coast of Galicia, Spain, the 2007 M/V Cosco Busan bridge allision in San Francisco Bay and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, among others, demonstrate that any or all of the components of that safety net may come under scrutiny following a marine casualty, possibly leading …

Revisiting The Thames Formula: The Evolving Role Of The International Maritime Organization And Its Member States In Implementing The 1982 Law Of The Sea Convention, Craig H. Allen

Articles

Despite the findings that marine casualty rates have "plummeted" and the safety record of the oil transport industry has "significantly improved," high visibility pollution incidents in the last decade like those involving the tankers Erika and Prestige off the coast of Europe, together with the chronic problems of illegal and unregulated fishing and dismal labor conditions for many seafarers led a United Nations-chartered consultative group of leading international organization representatives to conclude that there is an "urgent" need to improve State performance in the implementation and enforcement of the international maritime legal regime.

There is less agreement, however, in how …

The End Of The Viarsa Saga And The Legality Of Australia's Vessel Forefeiture Penalty For Illegal Fishing In Its Exclusive Economic Zone, Laurence Blakely

Washington International Law Journal

The world’s fish stocks are suffering from over-utilization. The earth’s oceans are subject to exploitation by all nation states and very little preservation. Because of the nature of the international legal regime of the Law of the Sea, enforcement of what conservation and management measures exist is challenging. Boundaries, ephemeral on land, are even more so on water, making rights allocation and management particularly difficult. Nevertheless, as fish stocks continue to decrease and it becomes clearer that oceans require more effective management, coastal states have begun to undertake more significant enforcement procedures corresponding to their rights in their exclusive economic …

The Influence Of Law On Sea Power Doctrines: The New Maritime Strategy And The Future Of The Global Legal Order, Craig H. Allen

Articles

For much of the 2006-07 academic year, elements of the US Naval War College facilitated an elaborate process designed to provide the intellectual foundations for the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and his staff to draw upon in drafting a new maritime strategy. The process brought together experts from throughout the world to take part in workshops, strategic foundation "war" games, conferences and listening sessions.

It was my privilege as the Charles H. Stockton Chair of International Law to serve as legal advisor throughout the process. This article summarizes the contributions of the Naval War College International Law Department (ILD) …

Heightened Security: The Need To Incoporate Articles 3Bis(1)(A) And 8 Bis(5)(E) Of The 2005 Draft Sua Protocol Into Part Vii Of The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea, Caitlin A. Harrington

Washington International Law Journal

Maritime terrorism on the Pacific Ocean is a growing threat. Terrorists can take advantage of widening gaps in the world’s maritime security regime. The current incarnation of the legal framework surrounding the nonflag-state right of visit has exacerbated emerging weaknesses. The world must be willing to allow nonflag states greater power to board vessels on the high seas that are suspected of participating in maritime terrorism. The ship-boarding procedures within the 2005 Draft Protocol to the 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation are a step in the right direction. They do not …

Australia's Tampa Incident: The Convergence Of International And Domestic Refugee And Maritime Law In The Pacific Rim: Introduction To The Maritime Law Forum, Craig Allen

Articles

The members of the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal are to be congratulated for their initiative, compassion, and insight in calling attention to the August 26, 2001 M/V Tampa incident and subjecting the actions of the involved principals and the governing legal regime to close and thoughtful scrutiny. Planning for the April 22, 2002 symposium in Seattle began in the fall of 2001, shortly after the Tampa's week-long crisis involving 438 migrants garnered international attention. Speakers for the Symposium conference, recruited under the leadership of the Journal's 2001-2002 Editor-in-Chief, Kelly Thomas, hailed from Australia, Europe and throughout the United …

Rescued At Sea, But Nowhere To Go: The Cloudy Legal Waters Of The Tampa Crisis, Jessica E. Tauman

Washington International Law Journal

On August 26, 2001, the Norwegian cargo ship MV Tampa rescued 438 passengers from a sinking ferry in the Indian Ocean. Most of the rescued were migrants from Afghanistan on their way to Australia. When the Tampa reached Australian waters, it was refused entry and a weeklong standoff between Norway, Indonesia, and Australia ensued. A shipmaster's duty to rescue is well established in international law, recognized by both the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. What is not clear is whether a corresponding legal duty applies …

Protecting The Oceanic Gardens Of Eden: International Law Issues In Deep-Sea Vent Resource Conservation And Management, Craig Allen

Articles

This article seeks to stimulate the nascent discussion on legal questions presented by access to, and use of, deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites and resources and to help guide ocean policy analysts in their efforts to formulate and implement appropriate conservation and management measures adapted to the unique multiple-use conflicts posed by the vent phenomena. The inquiry is timely and important for the vent communities, some of which are already showing signs of the human footprint—a footprint that may in the not too distant future include the tracks of submarine bulldozers as they set about the job of seabed mining.

The …

The Threat Of Oil Pollution In The Malacca Strait: Arguing For A Broad Interpretation Of The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea, Craig J. Capon

Washington International Law Journal

The threat of oil pollution in the world's busiest waterway, the Malacca Strait, and the legal complications that surround it continues to be a controversial issue despite international law reforms. Recent accidents have demonstrated that current measures to prevent pollution are inadequate and that traditional methods of enforcement are ineffective. Unfortunately, there is a tension between international law of the sea provisions governing pollution control in the Malacca Strait, and the desires of bordering coastal States to regulate vessels trafficking the Strait so that accident risk is minimized. Moreover, there is tension between UNCLOS provisions prohibiting the assessment of fees …

Punitive Damages Under The Carriage Of Goods By Sea Act: A Bulkhead Is Breached—Armada Supply V. S/T Agios Nikolas, 639 F. Supp. 1161 (S.D.N.Y. 1986), David M. Blachman

Washington Law Review

Armada Supply v. SIT Agios Nikolas was described as "no 'run-of-the-mill' cargo case," but rather a case involving "charges of cargo hijacking and blackmail, ransom and deceit—all the elements of a good high seas drama, short of mutiny. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, after awarding full compensatory damages, imposed $250,000 in punitive damages against the owners of the vessel because of reprehensible conduct in converting the cargo, and in blackmailing and deceiving the cargo owner. The court awarded punitive damages after it acknowledged that the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA) governed …

Potential Conflicts Between A Future Law Of The Sea Treaty And The Fishery Conservation And Management Act Of 1976, Jon L. Jacobson, Douglas G. Cameron

Washington Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enforcement Of The Fishery Conservation And Management Act Of 1976: The Policeman's Lot, Eugene R. Fidell

Washington Law Review

The purposes of this article are to analyze the enforcement provisions of the FCMA, to compare them with the terms of prior United States fisheries legislation, and to consider the probable shape of the enforcement program under the new law. Where appropriate, consideration will be given to parallel foreign developments as well as the possible interaction with the Revised Single Negotiating Text distributed at the end of the New York session of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea in May 1976. In several instances, the need for corrective legislation, which is apparently being addressed within …

Submerged Passage Through Straits: Interpretations Of The Proposed Law Of The Sea Treaty Text, William T. Burke

Washington Law Review

Among numerous important problems before the Conference, one of the most critical is the right of transit passage through straits, those narrow passageways which would fall within the territorial sea when nations generally agree on a twelve-mile limit. The right of submarines to pass submerged through straits (and of airplanes to overfly) is at the center of the transit passage issue. This is a key issue because the two major naval powers, the United States and the U.S.S.R., insisted early in the Conference's preparatory work on the necessity of an assured right of transit for all vessels and aircraft through …

The Abstention Principle And Its Relation To The Evolving International Law Of The Seas, Soji Yamamoto

Washington Law Review

It should be our task to objectively determine whether the abstention principle embodied in the Tripartite Treaty rationalizes the conservation of ocean resources in view of the historic development or transmutation of the concept of fishery rights under the international law of the seas. In order to do so, we must examine both the abstention principle and the historical development of fishery rights. Ultimately, this necessitates discussion of the consistency or lack thereof between the Tripartite Treaty and the Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the High Seas. The validity of the abstention principle must be …

The Abstention Principle And Its Relation To The Evolving International Law Of The Seas, Soji Yamamoto

Washington Law Review

It should be our task to objectively determine whether the abstention principle embodied in the Tripartite Treaty rationalizes the conservation of ocean resources in view of the historic development or transmutation of the concept of fishery rights under the international law of the seas. In order to do so, we must examine both the abstention principle and the historical development of fishery rights. Ultimately, this necessitates discussion of the consistency or lack thereof between the Tripartite Treaty and the Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the High Seas. The validity of the abstention principle must be …

North Pacific Fisheries Treaties And International Law Of The Seas, Beverly J. Rosenow

Washington Law Review

Fisheries problems in the North Pacific are not new. In the past century, disputes between nations have developed over whaling, fur sealing, halibut and salmon fishing. Currently, crises are again in the making concerning the utilization of certain fishery stocks of this area. The purpose of this comment is to provide a framework of international law of the sea concepts within which the current problems can be examined.