scholarly journals THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THE “MARITIME AUTONOMOUS SURFACE SHIPS” (MASS)

Author(s):  
Tiago Vinicius Zanella

Autonomous ships are already a reality. They are on the agenda of international law and international society in general. In a short time, it will also be a reality in all the world’s oceans. Thus, international organizations, States and international society need to be prepared for these autonomous ships. They will bring new challenges to the law of the sea and international maritime transport. One of these challenges is just what are the environmental impacts that these “Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships” (MASS) will bring with them. That is, what are the consequences for the marine environment of these autonomous ships? This is precisely the objective of this article: to understand the environmental impacts of MASS and what are the new challenges that humanity will have to face the imminent advent of these ships. In this sense, it will be demonstrated what the advantages and disadvantages of these vessels for the environment are and, in particular, what care the world needs to take to protect and preserve the marine environment due to the advent of these new technologies.

Author(s):  
Talitha Ramphal

Abstract Activities to tackle marine debris are conducted on the high seas by The Ocean Cleanup. The high seas are open to all States and may be used as long this is consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) and other rules of international law. This article argues that the LOSC provides for the freedom to use the high seas to protect and preserve the marine environment, including tackling marine debris, when interpreting Article 87 of the LOSC in light of present day needs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-353
Author(s):  
Lan Ngoc Nguyen

Abstract Part XII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the protection and preservation of the marine environment contains provisions that are worded in a general manner. As “the problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be considered as a whole”, these provisions need to be interpreted in harmony with the wider corpus of international law. However, when marine environmental disputes are brought before the UNCLOS dispute settlement bodies, their jurisdiction is limited to disputes arising under UNCLOS. The tribunals, therefore, have to navigate between deciding disputes in a hollistic manner and remaining within their jurisdictional limits. This article discusses the techniques used by UNCLOS tribunals to resort to other sources of international law when settling marine environmental disputes. It will then assess whether, in doing so, the tribunals have remained within their jurisdictional parameters and the wider implications of this practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Danuta Kabat-Rudnicka

Summary Sovereignty is a key concept in international law and international relations. First defined and discussed by Jean Bodin, sovereignty is considered to be an inherent attribute of any state. However, the changes that international society has undergone since the Treaty of Westphalia, including the emergence of different state and non-state actors vying for power and authority, have called into question the position of the state as the main actor in the modern world. This in turn has given rise to the following questions: how should the very concept of sovereignty be understood today? Given the growing importance of international organizations and regional integrational arrangements can the concept of sovereignty be extended to cover entities other than states; and in case of the European Union, what makes us think in terms of sovereignty rather than autonomy? This analysis is an attempt to apply the concept of sovereignty to contemporary international organizations. The main thesis is as follows: in the case of international organizations, especially a new type of organization, it is also legitimate to consider a narrative in terms of sovereignty, not just autonomy. The example studied here is the European Union as an international organization-cum-regional integrational arrangement.


2021 ◽  
pp. 57-79
Author(s):  
Anders Henriksen

International society is first and foremost a society of individual sovereign states. However, states are by no means the only relevant actors in international law. In fact, one of the consequences of the post-1945 expansion of international law into areas that had traditionally been of limited international interest has been the increasing legal importance of a variety of non-state actors, most notably international organizations and individuals. This chapter introduces the various actors in the international legal system that possess rights, powers and obligations in international law. It provides a thorough presentation of statehood and the criteria for the creation of new states, and briefly discusses the (limited) legal significance of recognition. It discusses the modes by which a state can acquire title to new territory; the issues of state succession and state extinction; and the legal personality of territorial entities other than states, international organizations, individuals and additional actors in the international legal system.


Author(s):  
Tiago Vinicius Zanella ◽  
Ricardo Pereira Cabral

The precautionary principle, invoking the notions of risk, scientific uncertainty and irreversible damage, takes the solution of the environmental issues of the global risk society to the legal domain. Its application in international law has evolved significantly, especially with respect to the protection of the marine environment. This principle, which was much ignored in its practical application, is gradually being used in international environmental protection. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the jurisprudence of the ITLOS has contributed to the development and application of the precautionary principle for the protection of the marine environment and how the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea contributed to the development of this principle in international law. Thus, although we are still not able to safely say that the precautionary approach is included in international law as an unchallenged principle, it has been given great steps over the last few years in this direction. Particularly with the contributions of the international jurisprudence of the ITLOS, the precautionary approach is evolving and becoming an autonomous principle, with less uncertainty and subjectivity that caused so much apprehension for the States and doubt in the doctrine.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Klein ◽  
Tiến Vinh Nguyễn

This paper summarizes and analyzes the new developments in international law of the sea through a number of recent international cases, particularly through the Arbitration's Award in the Philippinesv. China Case over the East Sea. These developments include those releated to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, the scope and basis of national rights to defferent maritime zones; Maritime delimitation; the important role of agreement in maritime delimitation and the signification of equitable and faire outcome; The rights and obligations of the State in the protection of the marine environment. Through its analysis and assessment, the article also confirms the central role of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, called the "Charter of the Sea and Oceans"


2019 ◽  
pp. 191-202
Author(s):  
Janina Ciechanowicz-McLean

The States’ responsibility is a fundamental institution of international law. The International law Commission – IlC expressed that in the Articles on responsibility of States for International Wrongful Acts. The principles and rules governing States are more clear and certain because they are set out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – UNCLoS. UNCLoS and the Articles of ILC provide mechanisms to hold States respon- sible if they fail to fulfil their obligations to prevent, reduce and control pollutions of the marine environment. The dispute settlement procedures in UNCLoS provide remedies for an effective action that are not available in most fields of transboundary pollution.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-246
Author(s):  
Matteo Fornari

AbstractThe issue of the regulation of navigation through Turkish straits proved to be one of the most sensitive and thorny question of international law of the sea in the last years. Transit through theses waters is regulated by a 1936 Convention—"a long-standing" convention according to the article 35, lett. c, of UNCLOS—that is more concerned with the passage regime of warships rather than the transit of commercial vessels. In the last decades, the Montreux Convention has showed its inadequacy in regulating this latter kind navigation: the free-passage principle, by day and night without obstacles, could be considered well grounded time ago, when essentially vessels carrying cereal went through these waters. But nowadays it seems hazardous, for marine environment and security of populations, allowing free and unimpeded transit of fifteen tankers a day. It follows that the problem is how can Turkey, the only coastal State of the Straits (and international community) prevent in the future accidents or collisions between ships carrying oil, chemical or radioactive substances, endangering seriously the regional ecosystem?


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
YANNICK RADI

AbstractThe paper analyses the dynamic procedures that work during the formation of international law in international organizations and conventional frameworks. These procedures organize and structure the interactive exercise of the normative function by law-creating bodies and law-applying bodies. The paper conceives of this ‘way’ of making international law as a law-making method that the concept of standardization helps to understand. Grounded in Aristotelian dialectic logic, standardization indeed conceptualizes the dialogic and procedural law-making that works for normative coherence in contexts characterized by co-operation and the heterogeneity of interests. Introducing this concept, the paper insists on the fact that it is the procedural nature of the dialogue that is crucial to reach normative coherence. Drawing on the consequences of standardization, and regarding dynamic procedures, it reappraises the status and the importance of both the different sources of international law and the different participants to international law-making. Also, the paper points out the predominance of normative coherence, as well as that of its ‘guarantor’, namely procedure that its author considers the cornerstone of legal certainty in the co-operative context of the international society.


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