Italian Marine Case Study

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Italy and the International Law of the Sea: the Italian marines case as a case study in the scope of the International Law of the Sea.

1. Introduction.
The following essay means to analyse the case of the Italian marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, arrested and taken in custody by the Indian authorities and waiting for the end of a criminal trial for the killing of two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in India. The case is significant from the point of view of the application of international law to a dispute which put a State(in this case Italy) in opposition to another State (in this case India) at the level of international relations. It is a case that provides a chance for the use, by Italy, of international legal …show more content…

4. Significant consideration about international law to apply to the case.
4.1 Applicability of the Convention on the Law of the Sea to the case.
The key legal issue in the "Italian marines case" concerns the exercise by India of criminal jurisdiction over the Italian soldiers accused of killing the two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast.
Both the marines’ defense during proceedings before the Indian court and the official communications of the Italian Government argue against the Indian jurisdiction on the basis of two arguments.
First argument concerns the location of events. They occurred around 22 miles off the coast of Kerala, outside India’s territorial waters but within Indian exclusive economic zone and contiguous zone.
According to the Italian opinion the art. 97 of UNCLOS, to which both Italy and India are party, should apply to these

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