Sovereignty Disputes and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea : A Public Order Perspective.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grant, Thomas D.

Series:

Melland Schill Studies in International Law Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sovereignty.

Contiguous zones (Law of the sea).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (414 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2026.

Summary:

Adjudicators have struggled with one of the persistent puzzles that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea presents - the limits to dispute settlement jurisdiction in respect of sovereignty disputes. This book argues for an approach that better accords than decided cases so far with the text, judicial method, and public order.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Judgments and awards

Treaties and other international instruments (selected)

Introduction

UNCLOS jurisdiction in a time of public order challenge

Interpreting and applying the limits of jurisdiction

Chapter outline and cross-cutting themes

Use of terms

Use of force and settled boundaries

The teleological ground: states, spatial authority, and stability

The principle of non-acquisition by force, its scope, and consequences: the 2024 Israel advisory opinion

Stability of boundaries at sea

Stability redux

Jurisdiction under UNCLOS Part XV, section 2: the framework

Article 288(1) and the scope of merits jurisdiction

Article 288(4) and compétence de la compétence

Article 293(1) and the use of force cases

The M/V 'Saiga' (No. 2) line of cases

Human rights and immunity of a warship

The Tzeng critique and a tentative reply

Use of force in other settings: some observations by analogy

Undefined terms and incidental rules

Land territory in UNCLOS: 'the land dominates the sea' (or UNCLOS comes ashore)

The land-sea link

The inherency of sovereignty questions and the problem with the Article 288(1) argument

Jurisdiction under UNCLOS Part XV, section 2: limitations and optional exceptions

Limitations and optional exceptions distinguished

Article 297: the specified limits on jurisdiction

Article 298: the optional exceptions to jurisdiction

Article 298(1)(a)(i) and its sovereignty disputes clause

The plain text of Article 298(1)(a)(i)

Drafting history of Article 298(1)(a)(i)

The deliberate placement of the land territory exclusion

The exponents of the territorial exclusion and their strained readings of the drafting history.

Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (2023) and its non-effect

Other territorial exclusion arguments

Draft article on territorial disputes and self-determination

Oxman's resolution III argument

Absence of substantive provisions as grounds for jurisdictional abstention?

A question of coasts: Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration (Mauritius v. United Kingdom)

The United Kingdom's objection to jurisdiction over the territorial issue

The majority opinion: shifting the issue to 'relative weight' and Article 288(1)

From Article 298(1)(a)(i) and back again: the majority opinion in disarray

Misreading the a contrario argument

The contradiction between the tribunal's conclusion and Article 288(1)

The residuum of UNCLOS disputes, connected territorial disputes, and a procedural incentive not to aggravate disputes: an answer to the anti-a contrario argument

The 'minor issue'

Judges Kateka and Wolfrum dissent

The majority's mischaracterization of the dispute

The majority's unsupportable territorial exclusion

Concluding points on territory in the Chagos Arbitration

Separating the land from the sea: South China Sea Arbitration (Philippines v. China)

Disputed existence: is there land at all?

Status of features as above or below water at high tide (Article 13)

Artificial islands and attempted sovereign appropriation

Disputed status: what maritime entitlement does the land generate? (Article 121(3))

Disputed nature and validity of claim: does the 'historic title' exception apply?

Disputed use: does the 'military activities' exception apply?

South China Sea: assessment

A 'sovereignty dispute' by force: Coastal State Rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait (Ukraine v. Russia)

Crimea in dispute?

Ukraine's case on jurisdiction.

Russia's objection to jurisdiction

The tribunal affirms Russia's objection

The tribunal's interpretation of the sovereignty dispute exclusion

The salience of claims in international law

How the tribunal found a 'dispute'

The 'developments' leading to a 'dispute'

Reasons to scrutinize Russia's 'developments': preliminary observations

The tribunal's default to 'objective dispute'

The 'objective dispute' and its limits

Legal and extra-legal assertions distinguished

Acts on different legal planes

Defining the particular dispute concerned

Fact-finding and dispute-finding

Insufficiency of the formal approach

Disentangling the legal from the extra-legal in a situation involving both

Identifying legal disputes: the evidence-based approach

'Developments' by force and the absence of law

The tribunal's denial of plausibility

From North Borneo to south Ukraine: plausibility and alleged disputes

Why the tribunal should have tested the evidence

The credibility of Russia's assertions

The danger of passivity in the face of evidence

Observing the adjudicator's ordinary method

How the tribunal should have tested the evidence: burden of proof and standard of proof

Article 288(4) and the missing facts

Managing public order effects in the law of the sea: some lessons from hydrocarbon practice

The institutional setting and a tribunal in isolation

Recognition and non-recognition in international law

Recognition as decentralized response

Distinguishing recognition from customary international law identification

Erga omnes character of territorial title and claims

International responsibility, non-recognition, and UNCLOS Article 304

Courts and tribunals as addressees of the obligation not to recognize

Institutional decisions relevant to Coastal State Rights.

General Assembly practice and the lessons of East Timor

Security Council practice and Charter Article 27(3)

ICJ advisory opinion on the Chagos

Ukraine's ICJ proceedings

Practice of other intergovernmental organizations

Charter Chapter XI, decolonization, and the existence of a dispute

Other decisions under international dispute settlement procedures

'Without-prejudice' clauses in UNCLOS and other rules and institutions

A concluding word on systemic consistency

After Coastal State Rights: repairing the damage

Exorbitant claims on land and at sea

A consensus takes shape?

Mauritius/Maldives

MH17 and Crimea cases at the ECtHR

Investment claims under the Russia-Ukraine BIT

Draftsmen and undue deference

The subtle effects of a 'double hat'

Using the adjudicator's method to address the contested 'dispute'

Distinguishing what is decided from what is not

Exercising restraint regarding legal relations not placed in question in the dispute

Keeping the audience in mind

A postscript to Coastal State Rights?

Conclusion

The unhappy award

Recognizing the ungainly foot when you see it

Hazards real and imagined

For a return to method

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

1-5261-9061-3

9781526190611

OCLC:

1564841856