All the claimants in the South China Sea disputes have engaged in various degrees of island-building on many of the geographic features in the Spratly Islands. However, as noted by the Tribunal in the South China Sea Arbitration, none has been on the scale of Chinese island-building on the features which it occupies, which escalated …
Island-Building in the South China Sea: Legality and Limits Read More »
The freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines, one of the most venerated high seas freedoms under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), faces an uncertain future under the new international legally binding instrument (ILBI) being negotiated in the United Nations. UN General Assembly Resolution 72/249, authorizing the intergovernmental …
This chapter examines the resurgent emphasis on states’ inherent power to regulate for public welfare objectives, so-called ‘return of the state’, in the investment chapters of three FTAs—the recently signed, but not yet in force, Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the now in force Canada–EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), and the recently revised final …
Towards a New Regulatory Paradigm under Recent FTA Investment Chapters? Read More »
This chapter discusses the development and adoption of the mandatory Polar Code at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and explores its relationship with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and various national regulations concerning shipping in the Arctic. It begins by summarising the legal regime for the Arctic region …
The Development of the Polar Code and Challenges to Its Implementation Read More »
Increasing Arctic marine use is driven primarily by natural resource development and greater marine access throughout the Arctic Ocean created by profound sea ice retreat. Significant management measures to enhance protection of Arctic people and the marine environment are emerging, including the development of marine protected areas (MPAs), which may be effective and valuable tools. …
The maritime boundary delimitation decision in the Ghana/Côte d’Ivoire Case is remarkable as the first decision of an ad hoc chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). This article evaluates the advantages of this critically under-examined dispute settlement mechanism, its operation in this case and the consequent prospects for the …
Unlike other developing states in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, Iraq did not participate in the proliferation of bilateral investment treaties and the widespread adoption of arbitration for the resolution of disputes falling within their scope. As a consequence, in the years since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the end of the US-led occupation, …
In its recent treaties, the European Union (EU) has established a new model of investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS). The EU’s new model entails the replacement of ad hoc arbitration with standing, treaty-based investment tribunals, staffed with judges appointed by the states parties. Awards produced by the EU’s new process will be subject to appellate review …
This article proceeds from the premise, explained herein, that the EU’s new system of ISDS is not compatible with the ICSID Convention and asks whether, nevertheless, a new multilateral system based broadly on that model can be designed to work at the Centre without amending the Convention. Is it possible, for example, for ICSID to …
The Challenge of Establishing a Multilateral Tribunal at ICSID Read More »
Unlike other guarantees of protection found in investment treaties, the obligation to provide most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment derives exclusively through the act of concluding a treaty that contains an MFN clause. And yet, notwithstanding this textual pedigree, MFN clauses, unlike any other provision found in investment treaties, have twice been the subject of extended study by …
Most-Favoured-Nation Clauses and the Centrality and Limits of General Principles Read More »
