UNCLOS Tribunals and the Determination of Jurisdiction over Incidental Questions: A Critical Analysis

The International Law Reading Group (ILRG) is happy to announce a session as part of its Early Career Research Exchange (ECRE) Series, hosting Aditya Roy, who is a PhD candidate at the South Asian University. Aditya will be presenting a paper on jurisdictional questions before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) when disputes cover issues external to the UNCLOS, especially those relating to territorial sovereignty and state immunity. The ILRG is looking forward to discussing and exchanging ideas on this exciting topic.

 

The full abstract of Aditya's research could be found below:

Consent is the basic cornerstone of international law as well as international dispute settlement. The same applies to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS). The dispute settlement mechanism under the UNCLOS is compulsory but based on the consent of the parties. The jurisdiction ratione materiae of the courts and tribunals established under UNCLOS is restricted to the dispute concerning the interpretation and application of the UNCLOS. Nevertheless, disputes arising before these UNCLOS tribunals are so complex in nature that at times there are issues part of a broader dispute known as mixed dispute which are external to the UNCLOS. Two such types of issues which have come up before the UNCLOS tribunals in recent years are territorial sovereignty and state immunity. The cases such as Chagos MPA Arbitration, South China Sea Arbitration, Coastal State Rights Arbitration and Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the India Ocean fall under mixed dispute concerning the issue of territorial sovereignty as part of a broader dispute whereas the Enrica Lexie Arbitration as part of mixed dispute deals with the issue of state immunity as part of a broader dispute. Apart from the jurisdiction ratione materiae, these disputes also concern the applicable law clause under UNCLOS and its limits with respect to the external question to be decided under UNCLOS. Therefore, through the analysis of these decisions, this work is an attempt to critically examine the jurisdiction of UNCLOS tribunals on the incidental questions of territorial sovereignty and state immunity.

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