Ar Jungtinių Tautų Jūrų teisės konvencijos normos bei pateikiami teisiniai instrumentai išsprendžia teritorinius-jurisdikcinius valstybių konfliktus Arkties vandenyne?

• Main Author: Butavičius, Darius
• Other Authors: berkmanas, tomas
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: Lithuanian; English
• Published: Institutional Repository of Vytautas Magnus University 2017
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; convention on the law of the sea; international customary law; Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Canada; Greenland; Norway; North Pole; Northwest Passage; Antarc*; Global warming; Law of the Sea; Northwest passage; Alaska
• Online Access: http://vdu.oai.elaba.lt/documents/1841774.pdf; http://vdu.lvb.lt/VDU:ELABAETD1841774&prefLang=en_US

Changes created by global warming are best observed in the North Pole. Arctic ice melts dramatically thus unlocking new water routes and enormous natural resources that were considered inaccessible. Five Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), Norway, Russia, and the United States (via Alaska) have focused on establishing overlapping claims over portions of petroleum- and mineral-rich Arctic Ocean seabed and subsoil. Four of these five states have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and are operating within its framework. The fifth nation, the United States, has yet to ratify UNCLOS, thus continues to exclude itself from the legal framework within which the other nations are operating. Yet, even were the United States to join the treaty, the question remains whether norms and legal instruments provided by the UNCLOS resolve territorial-jurisdictional disputes over the Arctic Ocean. Under the hypothesis formulated at the beginning of this thesis, the answer is negative. But confirming or even logically denying it certainly is the main objective of the paper. Despite attention brought by world mass media, legal aspects of territorial disputes over the Arctic Ocean up till now haven’t receive proper considerations from leading scholars of international public law. This thesis will be one of the first attempts to analyse not only norms of the Convention that are critical at drawing jurisdictional boundaries over North Pole, but also to project possible disputes resolution. As discussed further, international customary law constitutes the essence of the Convention, therefore applying UNCLOS separately from it would be inexpedient. This is the reason why analysis used to confirm the hypothesis of the paper must comprise not only systemic, but historic methods as well. Problematics of the objective directly defines structure of the thesis, therefore the first part of it, considers geo-factual and national-polit-economical preconditions for the conflicts in the Arctic. Development of jurisdictional regimes, that defined boundaries of the sea before UNCLOS, are observed. The Second part of the thesis studies international customary law as a background for the Convention. Customary legal practice recognizes five traditional theories of territorial acquisition. Three of them - discovery and occupation, cession and prescription – could be used to shape dispute resolution in the Arctic Ocean. Identifying legal preconditions of territorial acquisition, these theories does not, however, straight answer how areas beyond the Arctic Circle should be divided. The third part analyses norms of the Convention that draws jurisdictional boundaries. As the central regulatory mechanism of oceans jurisdictional issues, UNCLOS embodies not only the international community's efforts to codify the classical law of the sea, but also to adapt it to today's realities. In the context of Arctic territorial disputes, the most complicated provisions of the Convention are related to the extension of continental shelf and rights of passage through another country’s waters. Referring only to the definitions, these UNCLOS norms won’t resolve the overlapping claims over the Arctic Ocean floor structures (as continental shelves extensions) dependence and the issues of the Northwest Passage status, thus creating the preconditions for further jurisdictional conflicts escalation of the North Pole. The fourth part discusses dispute settlement instruments provided by the Convention and possibilities to apply them in the territorial conflicts over the Arctic. Without norms, which resolve the overlapping claims of the states, the Convention identifies four dispute settlement instruments. UNCLOS also provides that in certain matters countries may refuse to apply them. Three of the four Nordic countries that have ratified the Convention, have already declared that they will use this exemption, thus preventing any possibility to apply these instruments for resolving disputes over the Arctic Ocean. The fifth part of thesis analyses resembling jurisdictional dispute resolution practises. Performed analysis has helped to highlight the main arguments which involved Arctic states may use shaping their legal positions. Neither one of these arguments does not allow for definitive conclusions resolving territorial conflicts over the Arctic Ocean, therefore the states will continue to postpone application of any above mentioned dispute settlement instruments. The sixth part presents guidelines for new legal regime of the Arctic Ocean. Considering institutional UNCLOS weaknesses that hinder to resolve territorial disputes in the Arctic, a weak legal positions of the state, the fact that one of the major countries (the U.S.) are not even a party to the Convention and the upcoming deadlines for submission of territorial calims for the UNCLOS Commission on Continental Shelf, the thesis presents guidelines for new agreement establishing paticular legal regime for the disputed Arctic territories. Using some of the provisions of the Antarctic treaty system and even the UNCLOS, such an agreement would create a region-specific common management structure that allows international shipping through the Northwest Passage, according to the requirements of the Canada and responsible exploitation of Arctic resources.