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Trends and Challenges in International Law pp 275–293Cite as

On the Nature of the Law of the Sea

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Abstract

The law of the sea is one of the oldest fields of international law and one that is still very much studied and applied. Yet there seem to be few definitions of what the law of the sea exactly is, what it includes and what falls outside its scope. This chapter tries to provide some elements to move towards a better understanding of the nature of the law of the sea, through a historical analysis, which examines definitions provided from the seventeenth century until today. It thus identifies some elements which characterise the current definitions of the law of the sea and which pertain to its relationship with maritime law, its subject and its substantive content.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Scovazzi (2001), p. 53; see also Scovazzi (2015).

  2. 2.

    For an overview of such definitions see Sects. 4 and 5 below. An exception is provided in Lucchini and Voelckel (1990), who devote particular attention to defining the law of the sea and distinguishing it from similar concepts.

  3. 3.

    United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (adopted 10 December 1982, entered into force 16 November 1994) 1833 UNTS 397.

  4. 4.

    UNCLOS Preamble.

  5. 5.

    De Lacharrière (1983), p. 12.

  6. 6.

    UNGA Res. 2750(XXV) of 17 December 1970.

  7. 7.

    Art. 303 UNCLOS. Garabello and Scovazzi (2003); Scovazzi (2004).

  8. 8.

    Part XIV UNCLOS.

  9. 9.

    Part XV UNCLOS.

  10. 10.

    See, for the most recent text, UNGA Res. 75/239 of 31 December 2020 (emphasis added).

  11. 11.

    Scovazzi (2010). See also Treves (1995), p. vii; Brown (1994), p. 1.

  12. 12.

    This is not a limitation of the UNCLOS. The purpose of a treaty is to provide clear legal regulation, rather than abstract definitions, and certainly the UNCLOS goes as far as any other treaty in achieving this aim.

  13. 13.

    Customary international law is out of the question, since this source of international law, even more than treaties, aims at regulating conduct and not providing abstract definitions.

  14. 14.

    Grotius (1609).

  15. 15.

    Grotius (1625).

  16. 16.

    Scovazzi (2018), p. 48 points to the fact that Grotius was the first to elaborate comprehensively what we call today “international law”.

  17. 17.

    As Gidel (1932), p. 105 noted,

    ni Grotius dans son Mare Liberum, ni Selden dans son Mare Clausum, ni Bynkershoek dans son Dominio Maris, ni les autres auteurs, moins célèbres, dont nous aurons à mentionner les noms lorsque nous étudierons le développement de l’idée de liberté de la mer ou de l’idée de mer territoriale, ne se sont proposé d’écrire un traité général de droit maritime.

  18. 18.

    Welwod (1613). Curiously, Gidel (1932) does not mention Welwod in his overview over the law of the sea doctrine.

  19. 19.

    Infra Sect. 5.1.

  20. 20.

    The full title of the book was “An Abridgement of All Sea-Lawes; Gathered Forth from all Writings and Monuments, which are to be found among any people or Nation, upon the coasts of the great Ocean and Mediterranean Sea: And specially ordered and disposed for the use and benefit of all benevolent Sea-farers, within his Majesties Dominions of Great Britanne, Ireland, and the adjacent Isles thereof”.

  21. 21.

    Welwod (1613).

  22. 22.

    Twiss (1884), p. 286 (emphasis added). Twiss had been Advocate-General to the Admiralty and Queen’s Advocate-General.

  23. 23.

    11 Ass’n Reform & Codification L. Nations Rep. Conf. 133 (1883), 134.

  24. 24.

    Reddie (1841), pp. 24–25. He goes on however to argue that ‘from the time […] nations began to improve their own internal law by statutes and ordinances, and to commit it to writing in digests general or particular, this maritime universal consuetudinary law, however valuable as a model for imitation, however rich in materials for the construction of new codes, cannot be said to have existed as a general compulsory or coercive body of law’ (ibid., p. 27).

  25. 25.

    Section 4.

  26. 26.

    See for example Lauterpacht (1970), p. 155, according to whom the ‘… origins of international law as grounded in natural law and as expressive, together with the law merchant and maritime law, of a universal law of mankind’.

  27. 27.

    Higgins and Colombos (1943), p. 223.

  28. 28.

    Higgins and Colombos (1943), p. 7.

  29. 29.

    Higgins and Colombos (1943), pp. 24–29.

  30. 30.

    For example, Berlingieri (1918) adopts the title “Towards the Unification of the Law of the Sea” for a book that actually discusses mostly (private) maritime law. Similarly, in Higgins and Colombos (1943), p. iii, which deals with the (public) law of the sea, Colombos refers to Higgin’s “idea of writing a book on maritime international law”.

  31. 31.

    Gidel (1932).

  32. 32.

    Gidel (1932), pp. 4–6.

  33. 33.

    It should be remembered that at the time when Gidel was writing, legal positivism was in its heyday, as were efforts by international lawyers to break clear from older conceptions of international law that went beyond the State as the subject of international law, such as natural law.

  34. 34.

    McDougal and Burke (1962), p. vii.

  35. 35.

    Lucchini and Voelckel (1990), p. 9.

  36. 36.

    Lucchini and Voelckel (1990), p. v.

  37. 37.

    Churchill and Lowe (1999), p. 1.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., according to which the law of the sea does not include “rules of private maritime law” or “municipal law”.

  39. 39.

    Conforti (2013).

  40. 40.

    Lucchini and Voelckel (1990), p. 7.

  41. 41.

    Attard et al. (2014).

  42. 42.

    Attard (2014), p. vii.

  43. 43.

    For example, Forteau and Thouvenin (2017), p. 31 openly acknowledge that they feel justified “losque le besoin s’en fera sentir, de procéder dans cet ouvrage à quelques incursions ponctuelles dans le droit interne de la mer ou le droit (international) privé maritime”.

  44. 44.

    Anzilotti (1956), p. 211, according to whom “La dottrina prevalente considera il Diritto internazionale come un complesso di norme giuridiche aventi valore soltanto per gli stati e fra gli stati”.

  45. 45.

    ICJ, Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, Advisory Opinion of 11 April 1949, 8

    Throughout its history, the development of international law has been influenced by the requirements of international life, and the progressive increase in the collective activities of States has already given rise to instances of action upon the international plane by certain entities which are not States.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., 9 “It must be acknowledged that its Members, by entrusting certain functions to it, with the attendant duties and responsibilities, have clothed it with the competence required to enable those functions to be effectively discharged”.

  47. 47.

    Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNGA Res. 217 A of 10 December 1948. The Declaration was followed by numerous treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 23 May 1976) 999 UNTS 171, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976) 993 UNTS 3.

  48. 48.

    Peters (2016).

  49. 49.

    ICSID, Urbaser S.A. and Consorcio de Aguas Bilbao Bizkaia, Bilbao Biskaia Ur Partzuergoa v The Argentine Republic, ICSID Case No. ARB/07/26, Award of 8 December 2016, para. 1195. See also Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Council Res. 17/4 of 16 June 2011.

  50. 50.

    On the legal subjectivity of nature, see the contribution by Maria Clara Maffei in this volume.

  51. 51.

    Including Art. 137(3) UNCLOS, Art. 151(6) UNCLOS, and Art. 153(2)(b) UNCLOS.

  52. 52.

    Art. 187(c) and (d) UNCLOS.

  53. 53.

    Reg. V/33.1 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (adopted 1 November 1974, entered into force 25 May 1980) 1184 UNTS 278, as amended, and Art. 10 International Convention on Salvage (adopted 28 April 1989, entered into force 14 July 1996).

  54. 54.

    Tanaka (2018), p. 3.

  55. 55.

    Kelin (2011).

  56. 56.

    Rothwell and Stephens (2010), p. 1.

  57. 57.

    Forteau and Thouvenin (2017), p. 23.

  58. 58.

    Mateesco (1950), p. 152.

  59. 59.

    So much so, that Tullio Treves has titled his general course to the Hague Academy “The Expansion of International Law”; Treves (2018).

  60. 60.

    Supra, Sect. 2.

  61. 61.

    Eg Art 87(1)(e) UNCLOS.

  62. 62.

    Eg Art 77 UNCLOS.

  63. 63.

    Art 98 and Art 146 UNCLOS.

  64. 64.

    Eg Art 192 UNCLOS and the entire Part XII UNCLOS.

  65. 65.

    Part XIII UNCLOS.

  66. 66.

    Part XIV UNCLOS.

  67. 67.

    Art 94(3)(b) UNCLOS.

  68. 68.

    Art. 303 UNCLOS.

  69. 69.

    Such as the International Seabed Authority, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

  70. 70.

    Part XV UNCLOS.

  71. 71.

    An issue which will not be addressed in this chapter concerns the question of whether these issues belong to only one, or rather to two or more, regimes of international law.

  72. 72.

    Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (adopted 15 November 2000, entered into force 28 January 2004) 2241 UNTS 480.

  73. 73.

    Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (adopted 2 November 2001, entered into force 2 January 2009).

  74. 74.

    Tanaka (2018), p. 404.

  75. 75.

    Tanaka (2018), p. 451.

  76. 76.

    Rothwell and Stephens (2010), p. 461.

  77. 77.

    Forteau and Thouvenin (2017), p. 305.

  78. 78.

    Vukas (2004), p. 5. The author continues, remarking that “for example, there are in the [UNCLOS] some well-known rules on human rights”.

  79. 79.

    Early articles on human rights and the law of the sea include Sohn (1988); Oxman (1997); Cacciaguidi-Fahy (2007); Treves (2010).

  80. 80.

    Including both law of the sea courts and tribunals (e.g. ITLOS, The M/V “SAIGA” (No. 2) Case (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v. Guinea), Judgment of 1 July 1999; The Arctic Sunrise Arbitration (Netherlands v. Russia), Award of 10 July 2017) and human rights courts (e.g. ECtHR, Women on Waves and Others v Portugal, App no 31276/05, Judgment of 3 February 2009; Medvedyev and Others v France, App no 3394/03, Judgment (GC) of 29 March 2010; Hirsi Jamaa and Others v Italy, App no 27765/09, Judgment (GC) of 23 February 2012; Drieman and Others v Norway, App no 33678/96 (Decision of 4 May 2000); Bakanova v Lithuania, App no 11167/12, Judgment of 31 May 2016); HRC, A.S., D.I., O.I. and G.D. v. Italy, Communication No. 3042/2017, Views of 27 January 2021.

  81. 81.

    Papanicolopulu (2018); Petrig (2014); Attard (2020).

  82. 82.

    Moreno Law & Papastavridis (2017).

  83. 83.

    Scovazzi (2019).

  84. 84.

    Yet, even the most fundamental and apparently gender-neutral principles of the law of the sea may unexpectedly present a gender lining; for a discussion of the gender implications of fundamental law of the sea rules such as the freedom of navigation Hodson (2019); Heathcote (2019).

  85. 85.

    In cases in which there are women directly involved in the activity considered, taking into consideration the gender dimension seems obvious. In addition, the absence (or near absence) of women in specific activities and sectors, such as shipping or marine scientific research, requires an examination to be carried out from a gender perspective in order to identify whether there are any legal or factual obstacles to their entry into this field. For a further discussion Papanicolopulu (2019).

  86. 86.

    See also Lucchini and Voelckel (1990), pp. 10–16.

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  1. School of Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Irini Papanicolopulu

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  1. School of Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Maurizio Arcari

  2. School of Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Irini Papanicolopulu

  3. Department of Law, Politics and International Studies, Center for Studies in European and International Affairs (CSEIA), University of Parma, Parma, Italy

    Laura Pineschi

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Papanicolopulu, I. (2022). On the Nature of the Law of the Sea. In: Arcari, M., Papanicolopulu, I., Pineschi, L. (eds) Trends and Challenges in International Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94387-5_10

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