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Some Reflections on “Functional Sovereignty”*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

W. Riphagen
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Extract

The concept of the sovereign State is still at the core of most rules of international law. It is true that both the individual human being and the international organisation have increasingly found recognition in rules of international law as (acting) “entities” which are more than mere “creatures” of the sovereign State or States. Nevertheless, progress in both directions is slow and does not, as yet, really undermine the international system of co-existing sovereign States.

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Articles
Information
Netherlands Yearbook of International Law , Volume 6 , December 1975 , pp. 121 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1975

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References

1. Fisheries Jurisdiction (United Kingdom v. Iceland), Merits, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1974, p.3.

2. 450 U.N.T.S. p. 82.

3. Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, 516 U.N.T.S. p. 205 Arts. 12 and 24 (3); Convention on the Continental Shelf, 499 U.N.T.S. p. 311. Art. 6.

4. 559 U.N.T.S. p. 286.

5. Cf. Art. 8 (1) of the Geneva Convention on the High Seas.

6. Cf. the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 2 November 1973, 12 I.L.M. (1973) p. 1319.

7. Art. 16 (4) of the Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea.

8. Proposal in the UN Seabed Committee, A/AC. 138/SC. II/L.4; reproduced in Lay, S. Houston, Churchill, R., and Nordquist, M. (eds.), New Directions in the Law of the Sea, vol. 2 (1973)p. 552.Google Scholar

9. A/AC. 138/SC.II/L. 7, New Directions etc. vol. 2 p. 554.

10. See Rovine, A.W., Digest of United States Practice in International Law 1973 (1974), p. 277 et seq.Google Scholar

11. International Law in Historical Perspective, vol. 4 (1971) p. 256.Google Scholar

12. Cf. Art. 11 of the Geneva Convention on the High Seas.

13. The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law respecting Assistance and Salvage at Sea, De, Martens, Nouveau Recueil Général, 3rd series, vol. 7 p. 728.Google Scholar

14. Judge Story, as quoted in Altes, A. Korthals, Prijs der Zee [Prize of the Sea] (1973), at p. 70.Google Scholar

15. Op.cit. pp. 70-71; see also ibid. p. 127 et seq., and Verzijl op.cit. in n. 11, p. 84 et seq.

16. Cf. the Agreement of 9 October 1965 between Denmark and the Soviet Union concerning Salvage Operations in Danish and Soviet Waters. See National Legislation and Treaties relating to the Territorial Sea, the Contiguous Zone, the Continental Shelf, the High Seas and to Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the Sea (UN Legislative Series, ST/LEG/SER.B/15) p. 764.

17. Korthals Altes, op.cit. pp. 277-288.

18. See Stuyt, A.M., Survey of International Arbitrations 1794-1970 (1972), No. 188Google Scholar. English text in Moore, J.B., History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States has been a Party etc., vol. 5 (1898) pp. 4948–4954Google Scholar; French text i.a. in van Hamel, G.A., Verzamelde Opstellen, vol. 2, p. 834.Google Scholar

19. Moore, op.cit. at p. 4953.

20. Apart from other considerations, cf. Korthals Altes, op.cit. p. 282 et seq.

21. Examples in Korthals Altes, op. cit. p. 285, n. 37.

22. Op.cit. p. 289 et seq., and in particular p. 308 et seq.

23. IMCO doc. LEG XXIV/3 dated 20 September 1974.

24. Op.cit. p. 289.

25. Op.cit. pp. 291 and 292.

26. Op.cit. pp. 308 et seq.

27. In the original: “… waar hij het eventueel geborgen object aan wal zal brengen, dan wel zijn onderzoek of speurwerk wil ondernemen of beëindigen”. See also paragraph II (1) of the suggestions.

28. In the original: “de bij de gevaars- of nadeels-situatie meest betrokken verdragspartij… ”.

29. See paragraph V of the suggestions, loc.cit. p. 312.

30. Op.cit. p. 293 et seq., in particular at pp. 299-300.

31. International Convention relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties, Brussels, 29 November 1969, 9 I.L.M. (1970) p. 25; Trb. 1970 No. 197. The scope of this Convention has been extended to substances other than oil by the Protocol relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Marine Pollution by Substances Other than Oil, London, 2 November 1973, 13 I.L.M. (1974) p. 605.

32. See supra n. 23.

33. I.C.J. Reports 1974 p. 34.

34. Reproduced as Appendix XI of the Report, infra n. 35.

35. Publication of the North Sea Island Group: Sea Island Project; Feasibility Study on the Development of Industrial Islands in the North Sea, Report phase A, vol. 4: International Law Aspects (March, 1974).

36. Approved on 3 January 1975, 14 I.L.M. (1975) p. 153 et seq.

37. Digest of US Practice in International Law 1973, cited supra n. 10, at p. 278.

38. Reference may be made to the present writer's article on “International legal aspects of artificial islands”, 4 International Relations (1973) pp. 327–347, and p. 364.Google Scholar

39. Digest of US Practice in International Law 1973, cited supra n. 10, at p. 279.

40. 6 A.J.I.L. (1912) pp. 233-241, at p. 237; French text in De Martens, N.R.G., 2nd series, vol. 21, p. 439 et seq. at p. 442; also quoted by Stuyt, A.M., The general principles of law applied by international tribunals to disputes on attribution and exercise of State jurisdiction (1946) p. 139 n. 139.Google Scholar

41. Art. 2: “…sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources”; see also the curious reservation of the right of the coastal State “to exploit the subsoil by means of tunneling…”

42. Act of 26 September 1968, Stb. 1968 No. 585.

43. Journal Officiel of 31 December 1968.

44. See also the so-called “Informal Single Negotiating Text” presented at the very end of the Geneva session of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea by the Chairmen of the three Main Committees, A/CONF.62/WP.8, Part II (7 May 1975), Art. 45 para 1 (b). Text in 14 I.L.M. (1975) p. 682 et seq.

45. In this sense the “Informal Single Negotiating Text” cited supra n. 44, Part. II Art. 47 para 2, in connection with Art. 83.

46. A propos salvage the extraordinary story published in the International Herald Tribune of 20 March 1975 comes to mind: a sunken Soviet nuclear-missile submarine was partly salvaged by the Glomar Explorer, an American ship reportedly built for this very purpose with the financial aid of the CIA.

In this type of situation there is usually little room given to legal considerations. However, the case illustrates the question, dealt with above, of the continuing jurisdiction of the flag State over its sunken vessels on the high seas. It must be noted that under the traditional rules of international law a warship enjoys complete immunity and also that, in so far as reports go, there was no danger to navigation or to the marine environment involved. Actually the case illustrates the absence of a common basis for the freedom of display of force on the high seas and the freedom of commercial navigation.

47. Goldie, L.F.E., “A general international law doctrine for seabed-regimes”, 7 The International Lawyer (1973) pp. 796–824, at p. 807.Google Scholar

48. Op.cit. p. 808, n. 38.

49. 1 Jahrbuch des Völkerrechts (1913) p. 142 et seq.Google Scholar

50. Treaty concerning the Archipelago of Spitsbergen, 2 L.N.T.S. p. 8.

51. Op.cit. p. 811.

52. Agreements of 8 April 1960, with Supplementary Agreement of 14 May 1962, Trb. 1960 No. 69 and Trb. 1962 No. 54; 509 U.N.T.S. p. 64 et seq., p. 140 et seq.

53. Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law with respect to Collisions between Vessels, of 23 September 1910, 205 L.N.T.S. p. 220.

54. UN doc. A/CONF.62/C.3/L24.

55. IMCO doc. LEG. XXVI (2).

56. See “Informal Single Negotiating Text”, cited supra n. 44, Part II Articles 45 to 47 inclusive.

57. See e.g. Riphagen, W., “The relationship between public and private law and the rules of conflict of laws”, 102 Hague Recueil (1961-I) pp. 215–331 at pp. 240 et seq. and 322.Google Scholar

58. See “Informal Single Negotiating Text”, cited supra n. 44, Part II, Art. 51.

59. I.C.J. Reports 1969 pp. 49-50.

60. Ibid. p. 54.

61. See “Informal Single Negotiating Text”, cited supra n. 44, Part I Art. 22 and Annex I Part B.

62. 8 I.L.M. (1969) p. 679 et seq.

63. Doc. A/CONF.62/C.2/L40.

64. 13 I.L.M. (1974) p. 917 et seq.

65. Judgments of 21 June 1974, case No. 2/74; of 3 December 1974, case No. 33/74; of 12 December 1974, case No. 36/74.

66. Art. 9 of the Agreement for the Implementation of Articles 55 and 56 of the Treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union, 19 September 1960, entered into force 10 October 1963. Text in Trb. 1960 No. 135, also in Schermers, H.G., Benelux Economische Unie (Series Nederlandse Staatswetten, Schuurman & Jordens edition, No. 152) (1961) p. 239.Google Scholar

67. Judgment of 12 December 1972, case No. 21-24/72.

68. Cf. the “taking over” of bilateral treaties by the Community as envisaged in Art. 106 Euratom Treaty.