Law of the Sea Commons^™

Power Shift, The South China Sea Dispute, And The Role Of International Law, Youngmin Seo

Michigan Journal of International Law

The arena of the law of the sea has become a battlefield for Sino-American legal warfare, commonly referred to as “lawfare,” and it is in the tumultuous waters of the South China Sea where this fierce contest of great powers rages. The divergent perspectives on international law, particularly regarding maritime law, between China and the United States stem from the countries’ distinct historical experiences, memories, and outlooks. This inherent disparity in epistemology shapes their comprehension of the fundamental tenets of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”), specifically the conflicting notions of mare clausum and mare …

Regulating Jurisdiction Collisions In International Law: The Case Of The European Court Of Justice's Exclusive Jurisdiction In Law Of The Sea Disputes, Darío Maestro

Michigan Journal of International Law

To maximize their chances of receiving a favorable disposition, claimants often aspire to bring complex disputes to more than one international court. However, doing so may bring their claims under the jurisdiction of more than one branch of international law simultaneously, creating what this note calls a jurisdiction collision. This practice poses a challenge to the cohesion of international adjudication as competing international tribunals, relying on differing precedents, may give differing interpretations to the same rule.

Concentrating on the classical roots of international law and its changing significance over time and within different contexts, this note considers the benefits …

Save Our Sharks: Using International Fisheries Law Within Regional Fisheries Management Organizations To Improve Shark Conservation, Stijn Van Osch

Michigan Journal of International Law

Like many fish, sharks are facing unprecedented overfishing. They have been targeted both directly for their fins and caught accidentally (bycaught) in, for instance, tuna fisheries. This has led to collapsing stocks around the world. Overfishing has led to what has been termed a mass extinction among ocean species, and sharks are no exception-they are in fact especially vulnerable. As a result, many species of sharks are now listed on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This problem can only be tackled through coordinated, cooperative action by all states. This Note explores one avenue …

Canada-United States Cooperative Approaches To Shared Marine Fishery Resources: Territorial Subversion?, Ted L. Mcdorman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay will focus on how Canada and the United States have both succeeded and failed in adopting cooperative approaches to managing ocean fishery resources. A critical factor that has influenced these efforts is the introduction of an international legal construct dictating that States have exclusive sovereign rights respecting all marine living resources within 200 nautical miles of their shores. Cooperative approaches to managing transboundary marine living resources between Canada and the United States are necessary for two reasons. First, in the case of marine living resources, the resource pays scant attention to human-constructed national boundaries. Put another way, marine …

Conserving Marine Wildlife Through World Trade Law, Eric A. Bilsky

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this Essay marshals the evidence that fisheries around the world are in peril from destructive fishing practices. Part II argues that most fisheries management regimes are ineffective at counteracting the political pressures and economic incentives that lead to unsustainable fishing. Part III makes the case that government subsidies are major enablers of overfishing. The fourth and final Part discusses the continuing efforts to use international trade regulation to eliminate overfishing subsidies and halt the collapse of the world's marine fish populations.

Assemblage-Oriented Ocean Resource Management: How The Marine Environment Washes Over Traditional Territorial Lines, John A. Duff

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay assesses challenges that arise when marine territorial boundaries do not encompass the appropriate assemblage of resources and relationships necessary for effective authority and management. It reviews the manner in which certain offshore resource uses have been "quasi-territorialized" by the application of other forms of jurisdiction. It also highlights regime-jurisdiction-private interest-oriented responses to territory-oriented challenges in the form of assemblages of authority, interests, space, and time. Given the scalar progression of the links in the discussion, the assessment moves from international principles to exercises of national sovereignty to domestic administration of space and resources to private legal interests.

Public International Law And Its Territorial Imperative, Dino Kritsiotis

Michigan Journal of International Law

Territory, or the concept of territory, thus asserts itself throughout the discipline of public international law, and its influences can be felt either through direct means or discrete.

"Normalizing" The International Convention For The Regulation Of Whaling, Michael Bowman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article represents a revised version of a paper that was made available to the International Whaling Commission in connection with the current deliberations concerning the future of that organization.

Lessons From The Protracted Mox Plant Dispute: A Proposed Protocal On Marine Environmental Impact Assessment To The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea, Maki Tanaka

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although the ITLOS order attempted to facilitate dialogue between the parties, the Tribunal was incapable of addressing the root cause of the MOX plant controversy, namely the lack of an adequate mechanism for transboundary environmental impact assessment at the onset of the conflict under UNCLOS. Similarly, the OSPAR and Annex VII tribunals have failed to bring about the efficient resolution of this procedural environmental dispute. This Article addresses the prevention of similar incidents by proposing the creation of a marine environmental impact assessment protocol to UNCLOS to make assessment procedures operational from the initial stage of controversial projects.

The Role Of The Presiding Judge In Garnering Respect For Decisions Of International Courts, Jean Allain

Michigan Journal of International Law

The following study considers the role that should be assumed by a presiding judge to ensure full respect for the rule of law internationally. The foundation for this study lies in an examination of the dispute settlement provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention as well as its mechanism for the settlement of disputes-the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The Tribunal was called upon to deliver judgment in the MIV Saiga case. The judgment, along with the primary dissenting opinion, are considered, compared, and analyzed in order to demonstrate the extent to which the judgment is, …

Does The Emperor Have No Clothes? Enforcement Of International Laws Protecting The Marine Environment, David S, Ardia

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines existing structures and mechanisms for the enforcement of international environmental laws, particularly international laws that must confront violations on the high seas in order to protect marine organisms. Although the tenor of the present analysis is general, many of the most influential international marine agreements to date are highlighted, including the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Future Multilateral Co-Operation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, and the United Nations Agreement on the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stock and Highly Migratory Fish Stock.

Global Oceans Plitics: The Decision Process At The Third United Nations Conference On The Law Of The Sea, 1973-1982, Louis B. Sohn

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of Global Oceans Politics: The Decision Process at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, 1973-1982 by Edward L. Miles

A Right To Ice?: The Application Of International And National Water Laws To The Acquisition Of Iceberg Rights, Bryan S. Geon

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note first reviews in Part I the history and potential of the idea of iceberg utilization. Part II then briefly examines the relevant sources of international law relating to iceberg acquisition. Finding that the standard sources of international law, such as conventions and international custom, currently provide inadequate guidance in this area. The note in Part III then searches for general principles embodied in the three major regimes of national water law: riparian rights, prior appropriation, and administrative allocation. Finally, it outlines in Part IV what an iceberg appropriation regime might look like under each regime.

New Sea Boundaries In A Swedish Perspective, Hugo Tiberg

Michigan Journal of International Law

Sweden's experiences in applying the principles of the new international law of sea boundaries have more than local interest. Zonebound on all sides and thus never able to determine unilaterally the limits of her newly declared zones, the country has been forced to maneuver in a tight geographical and political situation against smaller brothers on three sides and a dominant eastern neighbor. It has been a tricky game in the borderland between legal principles and pragmatism, where trump cards have been islands of "sufficient" size, and where points have been scored through moderation rather than by overstraining the rules of …

From Cutlass To Cat-O'-Nine Tails: The Case For International Jurisdiction Of Mutiny On The High Seas, George P. Smith Ii

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will first discuss the historical background of mutiny, describing several of the major mutinies at sea that have been of interest to legal historians. Then will come an analysis of the history of piracy and an exploration of its symbiotic relationship with mutiny. Subsequent analysis will be given over to municipal law provisions outlawing mutiny - with concentration placed on the postures taken by those nation-states which subscribe to or are guided by the common law. A study of those relevant principles of international law regarded as controlling, as a consequence of historical vectors of force and municipal …

Jurisdiction Over Foregin Flag Vessels And The U.S. Courts: Adrift Without A Compass?, Stefan A. Riesenfeld

Michigan Journal of International Law

Jurisdiction of a nation over vessels flying a foreign flag and over persons aboard such vessels should be a relatively simple and well settled matter. The sad fact, however, is that it is not. Moreover, the recent 1986 Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act has added unnecessary and unexplainable confusion.

Canada's Sovereignty Over The Northwest Passage, Donat Pharand

Michigan Journal of International Law

In 1968, when this writer published "Innocent Passage in the Arctic," Canada had yet to assert its sovereignty over the Northwest Passage. It has since done so by establishing, in 1985, straight baselines around the whole of its Arctic Archipelago. In August of that year, the U. S. Coast Guard vessel Polar Sea made a transit of the Northwest Passage on its voyage from Thule, Greenland, to the Chukchi Sea. Having been notified of the impending transit, Canada informed the United States that it considered all the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as historic internal waters and that a …

The High Seas And The International Seabed Area, Bernard H. Oxman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article is set out in three parts. The first section briefly describes the geographic scope of the sea. The second section analyzes the geographic scope of the high seas. The last section presents six agreed legal principles relevant to the seabed debate which – contrary to the tone of much of the debate - constitute a substantial and growing consensus on the elements of the legal regime of the seabed beyond coastal state jurisdiction. The article concludes by suggesting that more is agreed in this area than is often acknowledged, and that the broader debate would be aided by …

The Recovery Of Shipwrecks In International Waters: A Multilateral Solution, Elizabeth Barrowman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will examine the current state of international law concerning property rights to all types of wrecks discovered in international waters. It will show that a multilateral convention is needed to establish an international framework for property rights to shipwrecks of historical and archaeological value, to wrecks of military vessels, and to wrecks of commercial ships such as the Titanic. There may be obstacles to the establishment of a multilateral convention, but the international community must provide certainty to ownership questions, furnish protection for submarine antiquities, and prevent disputes arising from the wrongful salvage of military vessels.

The Contours Of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction In Drug Smuggling Cases, Stephen E. Chelberg

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note examines the contours of U.S. jurisdiction over drug smugglers on the high seas. After a brief discussion of the two principal U.S. drug statutes, the note considers the territorial and protective principles of jurisdiction as defined by U.S. courts. Controversy currently centers around whether U.S. drug laws apply to foreign ships, carrying controlled substances on the high seas, where there has been no showing of an intent to import the drugs into the United States.