Law of the Sea

Catalog description

Address all central aspects of the law of the sea as a branch of public international law. INTER 952 Law of the Sea (2) This course addresses the public law of the sea (as distinct from admiralty law), covering the principal aspects of that subject as follows: historical overview; freedom of the high seas; nationality of vessels; flag State jurisdiction; baselines; boundaries; boundaries of maritime jurisdiction between adjacent and opposite States; internal waters and ports; territorial sea, contiguous zone, straits, and archipelagic waters; continental shelf; exclusive economic zone; deep seabed; marine pollution, living resources of the high seas, and the settlement of disputes, with particular referent to the Law of the Sea Tribunal (Hamburg). From time to time, as appropriate, the instructor may choose individual areas of the world or individual issues of the law of the sea to analyze in special detail within the main subject areas of the course.The course aims to offer thorough instruction on the foundations and sources of the law of the sea, the principal types of maritime jurisdiction, the principles of resource management, and approaches to the settlement of maritime disputes.The general historical introduction and subsequent sections are designed to accentuate problems and issues which enable students to master the foundations of the law of the sea.Accordingly, students of this course should: (1) develop a more profound understanding of alternative approaches to legal reasoning and of legal concepts and institutions within the framework of international law; (2) enhance their skills of legal analysis (3) develop a greater awareness of concepts of legal science and legal system; (4) read in some depth on the contemporary relevant principal documents on the law of the sea and appropriate doctrinal writings.At the end of the course students should" (1) have a sound grounding in how the law of the sea has developed; (2) be more demanding of rigorous in formulating and evaluating ideas and propositions; (3) have a sense of the virtues and limitations of comparison as a method of scientific inquiry in law through the analysis of relevant national legislation; (4) have a thorough command of the main principles and rules of the law of the sea; (5) give evidence of an ability to understand the other side of an argument, and better appreciate the strengths of an opposing view; (6) develop a willingness to question, to prove, to seek further information, and to display initiative in expanding one's knowledge.