Law of the Sea

In the South China Sea arbitration launched by the Philippines against China, the arbitral tribunal constituted under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) held in October 2015 that it had jurisdiction to proceed to hear the merits of at least some of the Philippines’ claims. It did not accept an argument made by China in its informal position paper of December 2014. Applying the reasoning of a like tribunal in the 2000 Southern Bluefin Tuna arbitration, Chi...

Define in your own words what is meant by normal baselines being “ambulatory” and discuss (i) the effect this has on the coastal State’s ability to manage its maritime estate (i.e. the various zones measured from the baseline) both in the present and as a consequence of the predicted rise in mean sea level due to global warming; and (ii) whether it would or should be acceptable under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea for coastal States to solve the problems caused by ambulatory basel...

“The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is silent as to whether foreign ships have a right of access to a port”. Critically discuss the above statement, commenting particularly on the significance of the customary right of ships in distress to enter any port or place of refuge.