Judging the Law of the Sea is an exciting book concerning the developments of the Law of the Sea by international courts and tribunals. Natalie Klein has a long-standing interest in UNCLOS dispute settlements, publishing her first monograph, Dispute Settlement in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, based on her PhD in 2005. Kate Parlett is a barrister who specializes in the full range of public international law issues, including the Law of the Sea.
The authors’ approach differs from other works on UNCLOS dispute settlements; some take a doctrinal approach that focuses solely on analyzing the rules and procedures of international courts and tribunals. This book fills the gap by evaluating whether international courts and tribunals – and, in particular, judges when deciding cases – act according to the objectives of UNCLOS, namely, “the peaceful settlement of disputes, the rule of law, and the public order of the oceans” (p. 39).
The authors propose an explanatory paradigm based on “stakeholder identification theory” to assess whether international courts and tribunals follow these objectives. According to this theory, judges are deemed decision makers who act in the organization's interests, in this case, UNCLOS (p. 37). Judges must also pay attention to actors’ rights and interests, especially States, since they are the primary stakeholders. Further, Chapter 2 discusses the role of judges from different perspectives. First, the authors empirically assess who has been appointed as a judge; such empirical assessment could reveal a judge's subjective choices. Second, critical judicial functions have been analyzed. In the authors’ view, treaty interpretation is one of a judge's crucial tasks.
Chapters 3 to 9 subsequently provide lively discussions concerning the roles of international courts and tribunals in several cases. Chapter 3 highlights how provisional measures can play an important role in preserving the parties' rights. Chapter 4 discusses the subject matter of jurisdiction. Next, Chapters 5 to 9 cover a significant number of cases regarding maritime space, maritime boundary delimitation, navigation, fisheries, and the marine environment. Chapter 10 provides the authors’ key findings.
Throughout these chapters, judges are shown to have played a significant role in upholding the good order of the oceans by settling disputes between States under the rule of law, thus promoting a peaceful dispute settlement regime. Furthermore, judges are essential to protect and develop the UNCLOS regime by ensuring the coherence of the UNCLOS rules via the practices of treaty interpretation and application.
The authors’ analysis, which builds around stakeholder identification theory and the grand objectives of UNCLOS, is eye-opening and persuasive. This ground-breaking work is an excellent addition to the literature on the Law of the Sea and the international settlement of disputes.
Competing interests
The author declares none.
