At the end of the 6th Ordinary Conference of the Association International du Droit
de la Mer, “International Tribunals and the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea”, held at the University of Sannio (Benevento, Italy) on 3–4 November
2016, the speakers accepted our invitation to expand their in-depth presentations
into essays, in English or French, for publication in a collective volume.
Already during the planning of the conference, it seemed appropriate to us that
there should be a dialogue between international law experts on the decisions of
international courts and tribunals where questions have been raised about the interpretation
of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Indeed, to date, a significant number of disputes concerning the interpretation or
application of UNCLOS have been submitted, by virtue of Part XV of the
Convention, to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea or to ad hoc arbitral
tribunals. In addition, both the latter and other international courts (including, quite
often, the International Court of Justice) or quasi-judicial bodies (like the Appellate
Body of the World Trade Organization) have had occasion to rule on the matter,
albeit on the basis of legal instruments other than UNCLOS.