Contentious Cases before ITLOS and the Seabed Disputes Chamber

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines what constitutes a dispute under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) concurs with the International Court of Justice that a dispute is a disagreement on a point of law or fact, a conflict of legal views or interests, or the positive opposition of the claim of one party by the other, which need not necessarily be stated expressis verbis, and that, in the determination of the existence of a dispute, the position or the attitude of a party can be established by inference, whatever the professed view of that party. When there is a dispute between the parties at the time of the institution of proceedings, the dispute must be one over which ITLOS has jurisdiction. To determine whether a dispute between the disputing parties in a particular case concerns the interpretation or application of UNCLOS, ITLOS must establish a link between the facts advanced by the applicant and the provisions of UNCLOS referred to by it and show that such provisions can sustain the claims submitted by the applicant. In contentious cases, the Seabed Disputes Chamber shall be open to States Parties to UNCLOS, the International Seabed Authority, the Enterprise, State enterprises, and State-sponsored natural legal persons carrying out activities in the Area.