8.5 Settlement of Disputes

The UNCLOS's Part XV system (the sea law's machinery): the obligations' peaceful settlement duty; the means' hierarchy: (1) the parties' own choice (the agreed means — the negotiation, the conciliation, the arbitration's designation); (2) the UNCLOS's default menu: the ITLOS (the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea — Hamburg; the full bench + the special chambers: the Seabed Disputes Chamber for the Area's disputes; the prompt-release-and- provisional-measures' urgency procedures), the ICJ, the Annex VII arbitration (the default's default), the Annex VIII special arbitration (the technical disputes); the compulsory-with-exceptions craft (the declarations-and-exclusions — the maritime boundaries' optional exceptions); the prompt release (the vessels'-crews' urgency — the ITLOS's special jurisdiction); the provisional measures; the good-offices-mediation-conciliation's soft options. Exam Focus Long questions: (i) The common heritage's doctrine and its "decline" (the Part XI-1994 story — the critical banker); (ii) The ISA's organs-and-functions; (iii) The Part XV dispute- settlement system. Short questions: the Enterprise; the reserved areas; the Seabed Disputes Chamber; ITLOS's prompt release. Trick areas: (i) The common heritage's elements: NO appropriation + equitable SHARING + peaceful use — the "no appropriation" alone is incomplete; (ii) The 1994 Agreement RESTRUCTURED (not abolished) the regime — the doctrine's survival beside the practice's change; (iii) The ISA's Council represents the INTEREST groups (the chambers) — the landlocked-and-GDS seats the Nepal connection; (iv) ITLOS…