Cases relating to the law of the sea: Issues of jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice

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The law of the sea (LOS) cases regularly appear on the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) docket, allowing it to rule on important substantive aspects of this branch of international law. The article focuses on the way these cases have “carved” the Court’s approaches to jurisdictional issues throughout its history. Combining theoretic and practical considerations, the study explores and assesses each jurisdictional basis set forth in Art. 36 of the Statute of the ICJ through the lens of law of the sea disputes considered by the Court: special agreements, jurisdictional clauses of treaties and “Optional clause” declarations. The study also analyses the modern trends in the settlement of the law of the sea disputes in the ICJ, their root causes, the practical “strengths and weaknesses” of various jurisdictional tools for seizin the ICJ, as well as the consequences of some of its key judgments for the future of dispute resolution in the law of the sea. The article also challenges — from a purely legal standpoint — the relevant terms (jurisdiction, competence, reservations and conditions) used in academic sources, political discourse and even in official documents on the jurisdiction of the Court. Due to a variety of fora that may be chosen by States to refer the LOS disputes, the study offers a helpful recapitulation of how the Court’s general approaches to jurisdiction were applied in the specific context of the LOS cases, which may serve as a basis for further comparative studies of jurisdictional approaches of other bodies competent to deal with the LOS disputes, inter alia providing valuable information for decision-makers on the prospects of lodging a potential application.