Table Of ContentAngela Del Vecchio · Roberto Virzo
Editors
Interpretations of
the United Nations
Convention on the Law of
the Sea by International
Courts and Tribunals
Interpretations of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea by International Courts
and Tribunals
Angela Del Vecchio • Roberto Virzo
Editors
Interpretations of the United
Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea
by International Courts
and Tribunals
Editors
Angela Del Vecchio Roberto Virzo
Department of Law Department of Law, Economics,
LUISS Guido Carli University Management and Quantitative Methods
Rome, Italy (DEMM)
University of Sannio
Benevento, Italy
ISBN 978-3-030-10772-7 ISBN 978-3-030-10773-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10773-4
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Preface
At the end of the 6th Ordinary Conference of the Association International du Droit
de la Mer, “International Tribunals and the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea”, held at the University of Sannio (Benevento, Italy) on 3–4 November
2016, the speakers accepted our invitation to expand their in-depth presentations
into essays, in English or French, for publication in a collective volume.
Already during the planning of the conference, it seemed appropriate to us that
there should be a dialogue between international law experts on the decisions of
international courts and tribunals where questions have been raised about the inter-
pretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Indeed, to date, a significant number of disputes concerning the interpretation or
application of UNCLOS have been submitted, by virtue of Part XV of the
Convention, to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea or to ad hoc arbitral
tribunals. In addition, both the latter and other international courts (including, quite
often, the International Court of Justice) or quasi-judicial bodies (like the Appellate
Body of the World Trade Organization) have had occasion to rule on the matter,
albeit on the basis of legal instruments other than UNCLOS.
Thus, given such a rich jurisprudence, important issues relating to the interpreta-
tion of UNCLOS needed to be addressed and examined, including, among others,
the role of the interpretative criteria set out in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the
Law of Treaties, the interpretation of the rules of procedure of courts and tribunals
seized on the basis of UNCLOS and current jurisprudential trends, both in the rel-
evant case law of each court/tribunal and with respect to specific aspects of the law
of the sea (marine environment protection, maritime delimitation, coastal State
rights in the different maritime zones, etc.).
It is our hope that this volume, by offering an account of the law and practice of
many international courts and tribunals and focusing on the various, multifaceted
aspects of UNCLOS interpretation as found in their case law, will be a useful work-
ing tool for academics and practitioners alike.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to all the distinguished authors of the
chapters. We also owe a special debt to Mario Gervasi and Andrea Insolia, who with
v
vi Preface
unfailing commitment and great expertise helped us read the manuscript drafts and
ensure compliance with the editorial guidelines.
Finally, we wish to dedicate this volume to the memory of Professor Benedetto
Conforti, who made an outstanding contribution to the study of the international law
of the sea and conveyed his passion for this subject to generations of students and
researchers.
Rome, Italy Angela Del Vecchio
Benevento, Italy Roberto Virzo
31 August 2018
Contents
The Contribution of Benedetto Conforti to the International Law
of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Giuseppe Cataldi
The ‘General Rule of Interpretation’ in the International
Jurisprudence Relating to the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Roberto Virzo
Part I The International Court of Justice and the Interpretation
of UNCLOS
La coutume, la CNUDM et la Cour internationale de Justice . . . . . . . . . . 41
Guillaume Le Floch
L’interprétation de l’article 121 de la Convention des Nations Unies
sur le droit de la mer par la Cour internationale de Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Valérie Boré Eveno
Part II The International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea and the
Interpretation of UNCLOS
Governance of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea:
The Role of the Meeting of States Parties to the Law of the Sea
Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Niels M. Blokker
The Contribution of the ITLOS to Strengthening the Regime
for the Protection of the Marine Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Alexander Proelss
The Requirement of Urgency in the Jurisprudence of ITLOS
Concerning Provisional Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Yoshifumi Tanaka
vii
viii Contents
The Jurisdictional Debate in the Request for an Advisory Opinion
Submitted by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC)
to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Miguel García García-Revillo
The Interpretative Value of the Principle of the Common Heritage
of Mankind and the Interests and Needs of Developing Countries
in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Enrico Zamuner
Part III Arbitral Tribunals and the Interpretation of UNCLOS
The Provisional Measures in The “Enrica Lexie” Incident Case . . . . . . . . 155
Andrea Cannone
Non-participation in Arbitral Proceedings Under Annex VII United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Arctic Sunrise
and South China Sea Compared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Otto Spijkers
The Interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea in the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration:
The Influence of the Land Sovereignty Dispute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Mario Gervasi
The Law of Maritime Delimitation in the Croatia/Slovenia
Final Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Andrea Insolia
Part IV The Interpretation of UNCLOS by Other International
Tribunals and Bodies
Les liens entre la CEDH et le droit de la mer dans la jurisprudence
de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Andrea Caligiuri
The European Court of Justice and the Interpretation of the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Gabriela A. Oanta
La Cour de justice et la représentation de l’Union européenne devant
le Tribunal international du droit de la mer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Isabelle Pingel
The Relationship Between International Trade Law and the Law
of the Sea in the WTO Dispute Settlement Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Maria Irene Papa
Contents ix
Part V Specific Issues Related to the Interpretation of UNCLOS
Discretionary Power of Coastal States and the Control
of Its Compliance with International Law
by International Tribunals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Erietta Scalieri
Between Consent and Effectiveness: Incidental Determinations
and the Expansion of the Jurisdiction of UNCLOS Tribunals . . . . . . . . . . 383
Loris Marotti
The Use of Experts by the International Tribunal for the Law
of the Sea and Annex VII Arbitral Tribunals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Lucas Carlos Lima
‘Considerations of Humanity’ in the Jurisprudence of ITLOS
and UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Francesca Delfino
The Contribution of Benedetto Conforti
to the International Law of the Sea
Giuseppe Cataldi
Abstract This article is focused on the scientific work of Benedetto Conforti on the
Law of the Sea, placing special emphasis on what is considered his “functionalist”
theory, a theory that was fully developed in the book on the legal regime of the seas
(“Il regime giuridico dei mari”, 1957) and then applied, through the decades, to
various phenomena of the Law of the Sea. Conforti reworked the concept of govern-
ment power over marine spaces proposing it in terms of an extension of the power
of control of the coastal State in the pursuit of certain, specific interests, first identi-
fied in fishing, customs supervision, etc., and then in all attainable utilities in adja-
cent waters. Hence, an assertion of a “functional” control of coastal interests, and a
denial of a spatial control. Conforti developed practical applications of this theory
in parallel with other issues such as the relationship between the EEZ and previous
agreements, the possibility of extending the EEZ concept to the Mediterranean, the
principles relating to delimitation. Even in writing about this matter, Conforti was
consistent in using a method directed to identifying the legal problems and to attain
solutions based on a study of practice, with which he was constantly confronted,
using an approach that is particularly appropriate to the Law of the Sea. This was
perfectly consistent with his pragmatism, which led him to be often ready to revise
his views and to avoid purely theoretical discussions.
This Chapter is the English version of the article “Il contributo di Benedetto Conforti al diritto
internazionale del mare”, published in Rivista di diritto internazionale 2017, 100:98–111.
G. Cataldi (*)
University of Napoli “L’Orientale”, Department of Human and Social Sciences, Napoli, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 1
A. Del Vecchio, R. Virzo (eds.), Interpretations of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea by International Courts and Tribunals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10773-4_1
