Law of the seas presents rising tide of interpretations
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Editor’s note:
University of Virginia Professor Myron Nordquist is the Editor-in-Chief of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Commentary. Shanghai Daily reporter Li Xinran spoke with Nordquist about international maritime law when he visited Koguan Law School at Shanghai Jiao Tong University last week.
Q: What do you think are the major threats to global maritime security?
A: Major powers and many other countries have problems with maritime terrorism. There is increasing piracy.
In Asia it was on the decline before but now there is a large increase in piracy. In some cases these terrorist groups are nothing more than thugs. They are riding on ethnic connections.
They were engaging in maritime activities such as taking drugs to the outlets where they sell them. These people are capitalizing on making money and it’s very destabilizing because with so much money involved they can buy off government officials. All they need to do is to give a corrupted official some money in exchange for a loose customs examination.
Another problem in global maritime security is that we still have the problem of flag state jurisdiction, which refers to where a ship is registered. Many nations offer flags of convenience and don’t have serious enforcement. There is no modern definition on piracy. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is now 33 years old. Things have evolved in many ways but the problem is flags of convenience states should be obligated to prosecute or extradite terrorists.
Q: How shall we peacefully develop deep sea beds?
A: Right now there is over-fishing. You know the fishery resources within the 200 mile limit of coastal states (Exclusive Economic Zone) are over exploited.
Meanwhile, we built cables along the sea bed. They are as thin as a fishing line. Almost 90 percent of data on the Internet which goes between China and the US is transmitted by the cables. It is good for business anyway.
For the next step we may find a better way to peacefully use the mining resources under the sea bed. Up till now most of them are still untouched.
Q: As a natural carbon sink, the ocean absorbs about 25 percent of all the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity annually. What shall we do beyond simply counting on the climate-change agreement expected to be reached in Paris in December?
A: There is plenty of popular prejudice to go around. The CO2 emissions are causing increased acidification. But the attempts to change the activities of people are largely a great failure. The truth is that you can put all the renewable energy stuff you want to work for the next 20 years and it would be less than 10 percent of the total global energy consumption. We are going to be stuck in an oil and gas economy for a very long time.
Q: Do you think high seas are a paradise for illegal acts like gambling?
A: Let’s use a hypothetical example.
Someone buys and owns an old cargo ship and they park it 13 miles (1 mile beyond the 12 mile territorial waters) off the shore of a country. Let’s say you’re in a country that prohibits gambling, abortions or has strict regulations on plastic surgery. They have the possibility of flying out there on a helicopter and people can gamble or they can have abortions or they can get their face-lift there.
Whatever it is, it’s prohibited and yeah it works for about six months. And then suddenly the state will take measures to prevent the helicopter leaving or arrest people involved onshore.
If the ship has no flag it can be considered a pirate ship and any country can arrest them. So assuming it has got a flag on it there is a particular country responsible for the activities.
Politicians from the country with the bans will talk to the flag state that they have to stop activities that corrupt their citizens and violate administrative principles. The country that registered the ship won’t be happy to be making maybe US$5,000 a year from the shipping company and then have this big problem just outside territorial waters.
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