Background
Maritime security traditionally focuses on maritime disputes, naval competition, Sea lines of communication (SLOCs), War at sea . The modern maritime securities after the cold war and 9/11 have been significantly changing and more complex, which is involving worldwide collaboration and mutual understanding .
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) has been managing maritime issues fundamentally for years and acceptable as the basic convention on solving maritime dilemmas. Not only dispute among states but also managing sea resources among states. Remarkably, maritime issues have been developing into more complex and complicated regarding the modernization, globalization and transnational problems. This convention alone is not enough to provide complete guidance to manage the confronting interests on the sea.
The Law of the Sea framework satisfactory to address contemporary maritime security issues, especially on security measurements are questionable regarding the legal and consistency framework of security initiatives with LOSC, particularly whilst the agreements deal with political, legal and financial factors.
The 9/11 tragedy becomes a pivotal point to maritime security regulation regarding the fearful theory of next devastating attack from terrorist will occur from the sea . To prevent the threats, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has issued several regulations concerning on maritime safety and security . International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code is one of the most fashionable and revolutionary systems in the evolution of shipping industry security . The U.S established several security preventive policies such as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), Cont...
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...2008, p. 8.
Department of Homeland Security, “ Implementation of National Maritime Security Initiatives”, Federal Register, Rules and Regulations, Vol. 68, No. 204, October 22, 2003 ,p.,60448 cited in Sean D. Murphy P, United States Practice in International Law, Volume 2; Volumes 2002-2004 Cambridge university press, new York, 2005,p .130
Donna J, Nincic., “The Challenge of Maritime Terrorism: Threat Identification, WMD and Regime Response”, The Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 28 No. 4, 2005, pp. 635-636.
Friedman, Benjamin, “The Proliferation Security Initiative: The Legal Challenge”, Bipartisan Security Group Policy Brief, September 4,2003,pp.2-3.
Grewal, Devinder, “The ISPS Code: The Australian Experience and Perspective” in Rupert Herbert-Burns, Sam Bateman and Peter Lehr,eds., “Lloyd’s MIU Handbook of Maritime Security”, Ch.23, pp. 327-335.
Under the UN 1982 treaty, a state’s territorial sea extends twelve nautical miles from the national coastline (Slomanson 305). Within this area, Ecuador exercises its sovereignty over these waters as if it were a landmass (Slomanson 305). All aspects of the sea are under its control, including the seabed and airspace. Furthermore, Ecuador is allowed to impose laws that regulate the territory and consume resources that lie inside this defined area. Within this territorial sea, Ecuador “must exercise its sovereign power in this adjacent strip of water” (Slomanson 305). Additionally, Ecuador is expected to chart this water and to provide warning of navigational hazards (Slomanson 305). However, Ecuador did not act upon this and was “lax in enforcing it”. In 1951, the International Court of Justice issued this statement in response to a ruling:
United Nations , "United Nations and Convention on the Law of the Sea:Division for Ocean Affairs and the LAw of the Sea." Accessed November 27, 2013. http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/UNCLOS-TOC.htm.
Cambone, Stephen. The National Security Act of 1947– a New Structure for National Security Policy Planning. Washington D.C.: CSIS, 1998.
International law can go through substantial changes if the privileged legal subjects, states, share a common will. Whenever the circumstances are such, the actors can convene a conference and after a series of negotiations, they might conclude an international agreement among themselves resulting in a new setup of international law. From a procedural point of view, therefore, it is rather simple to ‘make’ international law. If the substantive elements significantly overlap (i.e. common denominator of state interests), international law can be altered in line with the will of the parties. This essay deals with four such fields which have significantly been modified during the post-1940 period: human rights, environmental law, law of the sea, and space law. The first two are of particular importance as they have overarching effects in relation to other legal fields.
Modern piracy has touched nearly every corner of the globe and has increased with globalization. The tentacles of piracy now extend from South America to the South China Sea. The greatest numbers of piracy incidents occur along maritime commercial trade routes. Since China dominates the world’s container shipping industry, the South China Sea has become a hotspot for piracy (Kraska 2011). The prominence of cargo activity increases opportunity for pirates and indisputably triggered the sixty- nine incidents of piracy that were reported in 2009 in the South China Sea (Kraska 2011).
INTRODUCTION : a brief overview of the current situation regarding the security issue in the Pacific region
The smaller navies of the world usually consist of warships, smaller boats like patrol boats, missile boats, and minesweepers. The main objective fo...
Although merchant ships spend most of their lifetime outside the territorial waters, the current international maritime legal regime is ironically revolved around nationality of the vessel. Every vessel engaged in international trade must register in a country and is subjected to the regulatory control of that country whose flag it flies as per the existing international maritime law. Resultantly, any country has the right to allow a vessel to fly its national flag and to therefore bestow its nationality upon that vessel. When a vessel owner registers a vessel with a nation, the owner agrees to abide by that nation’s law and regulations of that ‘flag state’ in return for protection and the right of its vessel to be of that sovereign state. A system commonly known as “Flags of Convenience” (FOC) has developed, in which commercial vessels register in countries with “open registries” and consequently the ships contain practically no link at all to the flag states in which they are registered.
NATO, which stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established on 4th April 1949 after the World War II, as an active and leading contributor to international peace and security by creating a political and military alliance among the countries. At the beginning the alliance consisted of 12 countries and later it was widely spread to 28 countries from Western Europe and North America, situating the headquarters in Brussels, Belgium considering that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America as an attack against them all. NATO uses English and French as official languages. The motto of NATO is “Animus in Consulendo Liber”
In conclusion there are many aspects that have led up to the agreement to open the worlds first deep-sea mine. Much of the work done to lay the foundation for this new industry was done with the collaboration of many different actors. Even the actors that are opposed to mining in the deep ocean play the critical role of informing the general public and swaying public opinion. The analysis of many different aspects of an international situation allows a broader picture to be seen. What was once a simple mining agreement can now be viewed as a complex system of cogs all working in unison to produce an event.
Geissmann, Hans J. 2001. “The Underrated OSCE” Working paper presented for Consultation on NATO Nuclear Policy, National Missile Defence & Alternative Security Arrangements in Ottowa, Canada. http://www.ploughshares.ca/libraries/WorkingPapers/Simons%20Conf%20Ottawa/Giessmann.html
In 1993, the Department of Defense supplied an Ocean Policy Review Paper on “the currency and adequacy of U.S. ocean policy, from the strategic standpoint, to support the national defense strategy,” which established that U.S. national security interests in the oceans have been protected even though the U.S. is not in the UNCLOS (U.S. D.O.D. 76-94). The practices of the United States over the course of the last 300 years has created the very routine law of the sea that is the foundation of UNCLOS’s navigational provisions. Therefore it is not right to say that the U.S. may benefit from the convention’s navigational provisions if it were to join it (Groves).
Promotion of seafarers rights coupled with international co-operation is likely to boost international trade and competition among ship owners. Commitment from governments and ship owners is critical in ensuring effective and successful implementation of the convention in order to achieve its goals. It was anticipated that as the MLC 2006 was being ratified by countries, the conventions which were in existence would be slowly phased out to pave way for the implementation of the new convention.
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.
This attention has garnered the interest of law and was the reason for national laws and international conventions to govern the shipping industry in general and seaworthiness in particular. This has resulted in some confusion as to whether seaworthiness means the same in different branches of Maritime Law. This section will deal with the relevance of seaworthiness in different branches of Maritime Law, its meaning and nature.