How should international judicial bodies constituted under UNCLOS determine if they have jurisdiction over disputes involving territorial sovereignty?

Abstract

For the international judicial bodies constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), there are mainly three conditions which limit their jurisdiction to extend to disputes pertaining to the interpretation and application of UNCLOS which involve sovereignty issue: firstly, if the nature of the dispute is deemed as a sovereignty dispute; secondly, if the prerequisite to adjudicate/arbitrate the dispute is to resolve the sovereignty dispute; and thirdly, if the adjudication/arbitration of the dispute will advance or detract a state’s sovereignty claim. However, not all disputes involving territorial sovereignty are out of their jurisdiction. Provided that the court judgment or arbitral award will not affect the settlement of the sovereignty dispute between the disputed states or the claim to sovereignty of any state, they may, to a certain extent, have jurisdiction over a dispute of the interpretation and application of UNCLOS with sovereignty dispute ancillary to it.