AN EVALUATION OF THE RELEVANT PROVISIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA

Doctoral thesis proposal on a topic
‘INTERNATIONAL MARITIME BOUNDARIES: AN EVALUATION OF THE RELEVANT PROVISIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA (1982) (A CASE STUDY OF THE NORTHERN ADRIATIC SEA)’
Ana Skara
Introduction
The concept of the border is not only a legal issue but rather a complex phenomenon. Borders can have political, historical, ethical, geographic, psychological and anthropological implications and connotations. In this study the term boundary will be used as it is the practice of the majority of legal documents referring to the maritime law. After the integration processes in the European Union, the borders issue has also been at the forefront of the EU debate (internal/external borders). The EU’s expansion to Eastern Europe has significant theoretical and policy implications. The main objectives of this PhD project proposal are to evaluate boundary delimitations on the northern Adriatic Sea. The present day solutions are not able to adequately resolve legal disputes currently existing.
2. Subject and purpose
In order to reach the objectives the author will focus on the following activities:
a) To evaluate relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) and the EU’s conventions.
b) To evaluate the role of diplomatic negotiators with regard to delimitation in the chosen case study,
The author shall investigate the delimitation process in a geographically complex regional situation the northern Adriatic Sea also taking into consideration political connotation as Slovenia is an EU member state, and Croatia is an EU candidate country. It shall be shown that the Arbitration Agreement of 4.11.2009, Kosor-Pahor Agreeement is merely a work in progress. This complex case study has been evaluated by some publications however there is still no thorough, multidisciplinary research on this topic. The problem is approached from both a theoretical and practical point of view, in particular, in analyzing not only the more well-known controversies in delimitation solved by international agreements/Conventions, but also still unsettled disputes in which Croatia and Slovenia are involved. Namely, Slovenia, for a long time, has refused the offer to arbitrate, hoping that international pressure on Croatia will lead to its ratification of the agreement. It seems that the lack of harmonization leaves a gap and creates uncertainty that is exploited by individual, national interests. The current stance of the Kosor-Pahor agreement is arbitration. However, that agreement received quite harsh criticism by political opposition parties in Slovenia.
The results of the analysis of this case study will be compared with the negotiations and the Treaty (15 September 2010) between the Kingdom of Norway and the Russian Federation in order to find similarities and differences and to...