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CRIMINAL JURISDICTION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
This article was first published in the April 2022 edition of Benedict's Maritime Bulletin [Vol 20, No 2, Second Quarter 2022] and is reproduced with due permission".
Even almost a century after the seminal 1927 Permanent Court…

INTERNATIONAL STRAITS OF RELEVANCE TO INDIA
Abstract
International straits, by way of geography—resulting in their reference as ‘choke points’—and function, are a crucial component of the maritime domain. This is particularly true of the Indian Ocean Region within which India…

THE FUKUSHIMA CONUNDRUM: OCEAN DISPOSAL OF NUCLEAR WASTE
The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Yoshihide Suga, recently made public a plan to discharge 1.25 million tonnes of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, describing it as his country’s “most realistic…

NAVIES AND THE ‘USE OF FORCE’- ANALYSING AN ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE US NAVY AND SEAGOING FORCES OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS PART 2: ADDRESSING THE LEGAL ISSUES
The preceding segment of this two-part article had set the context within which three important legal questions needed to be explored: (1) Do IRGCN gunboats classify as warships? (2) Do their harassment-actions constitute a level of ‘use…


EMPLOYMENT OF UNMANNED MARITIME SYSTEMS IN THE INDO-PACIFIC: LEGAL IMPLICATIONS AND THE WAY AHEAD
On December 16 2016, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) seized an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) in the EEZ of the Philippines, approximately 50 nautical miles North-West of the Subic Bay. The UUV belonged to the United States (US)…

INDIA AND INDONESIA- STRENGTHENING MARITIME RELATIONS
India and Indonesia are maritime neighbours with a symbiotic relationship which can be utilised towards developing maritime cooperation in the region. The distance between India's Andaman Islands and Indonesia's Aceh is not more than 80 nautical…

CHINA'S APPROACH TO FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: NO SAIL ZONES
Introduction
Torturous negotiations, involving much bargaining and several compromises, characterised the multiple sessions of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. Although the Conference eventually succeeded in formulating…

IMPLEMENTING SDG 14: TAKEAWAYS FROM THE OCEAN CONFERENCE
The high-level United Nations (UN) conference to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) was held at UN Headquarters, New York from 5 to 9 June 2017. The event was specially convened to build international…

PROPOSED CHINESE LAW ON MARITIME TRAFFIC SAFETY: INTERPRETATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
On February 14, 2017, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council of China sought public comments on a new draft legislation, proposed to replace the existing Maritime Safety Law of 1983. Coming in the backdrop of the rather…

SOUTH CHINA SEA: FROM TURBIDITY, TO SEMBLANCE OF TRANQUILITY
The unfolding events in the South China Sea (SCS) in the last one decade plus has been tumultuous to say the least. The year Code of Conduct (CoC) 1was signed in Cambodia (2002) can be taken as the bench mark year when the members of the ASEAN…

NAVIES AND MARITIME MILITIA: AN UNEQUAL CONTEST
On 4th September, the USS Firebolt, a coastal patrol boat, operating in the Persian Gulf was the subject of ‘harassment’ by seven Iranian boats operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN). This was preceded by a series…