Irini Papanicolopulu

The Law of the Sea Convention: No Place for Persons?

AbstractThe article, adopting an innovative approach to the law of the sea, discusses the place and role reserved to persons in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) and the legal regime of which it is a part. The LOSC and other law of the sea agreements are examined, focussing on provisions that mention persons, their rights and their duties. Shortcomings identified include: the difficulty to configure persons as the beneficiaries of rights and the recipient of duties and the ensuing uncertain subjectivity of persons under the law of the sea; the presence of numerous gaps and inconsistencies in the existing legal regulation; the unavailability of mechanisms to address violations of duties by states. The conclusions draw attention to the potential of the LOSC and other treaties to further develop the international legal regime applicable to persons at sea and to provide an adequate place for persons in the law of the sea.

A Missing Part of the Law of the Sea Convention: Addressing Issues of State Jurisdiction over Persons at Sea

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (LOSC) is a milestone for international law, in general, and for the law of the sea, in particular. This chapter addresses legal issues connected with seas and literature issue, indeed one that is little, if at all, studied. It focuses on one among them in particular, though perhaps the first such issue logically considered. The chapter enquires into which State has jurisdiction over persons at sea. It is devoted to the listing and description of the rules that may be used to attribute jurisdiction over a person at sea. It is more common to encounter provisions that do not directly establish the jurisdiction of State over a person, but determine that a State will have jurisdiction over the ship or structure on which the person is located. Rules examined so far allow or mandate the exercise of jurisdiction. Keywords: international law; jurisdiction; legal issues; LOSC ; state jurisdiction

The duty to rescue at sea, in peacetime and in war: A general overview

The duty to rescue persons in distress at sea is a fundamental rule of international law. It has been incorporated in international treaties and forms the content of a norm of customary international law. It applies both during peacetime and during wartime, albeit with the necessary adjustments to take into account the different circumstances. States are also under the duty to provide search and rescue services. This article discusses the content and limitations of these provisions and assesses their potential to ensure the protection of human lives at sea. Furthermore, the article suggests that reference to the right to life, as protected in international human rights law, may be useful in further safeguarding human life and ensuring compliance by States with their duties.

Jurisdiction of States over Persons at Sea: Principles, Issues, Consequences

Developments in law and technology have incremented the cases in which States and people interact at sea and require that clear rules be in place to determine the State that has jurisdiction over a person and the content and extent of this jurisdiction. The chapter illustrates the criteria under international law for establishing such jurisdiction and discusses some issues related to the lack of always clear rules and the complex jurisdictional picture at sea. Functional jurisdiction, territorial jurisdiction and unlawful jurisdiction are in turn discussed. Finally, the chapter concludes that there are numerous rules that permit or mandate the exercise of jurisdiction over a person by a State and that the trend is towards the increase of legal duties to exercise such jurisdiction, so as to serve basic societal interests such as the protection of human rights.

International Judges and the Protection of Human Rights at Sea

Notwithstanding their traditionally separate treatment, human rights law and the law of the sea have recently started to interact in a number of cases involving individuals at sea and the protection of their rights. Starting from this premise, the chapter reviews the contribution of international courts and tribunals to the harmonisation of these two, apparently distant, fields of international law. As the chapter shows, harmonisation has been achieved through the concept of “considerations of humanity” developed by the ICJ and the ITLOS, as well as through the adoption by human rights courts of notions of jurisdiction deriving from law of the sea to define the scope of human rights treaties.