Public International Law Unit III encompasses the core legal doctrines defining state jurisdiction over maritime zones under the Law of the Sea, the international rules governing state responsibility for wrongful acts, and the legal principles regulating succession to rights and obligations during sovereign transitions. These structured class notes provide LLB students with clear conceptual explanations, statutory references, and judicial precedents essential for semester examinations.
State Jurisdiction and the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
State jurisdiction under the law of the sea is governed primarily by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982. UNCLOS establishes an international legal framework dividing maritime spaces into distinct zones, balancing the sovereign authority of coastal states with the navigational freedoms of the international community.
Classification of Maritime Zones
Maritime zones are measured from territorial baselines established along coastal shores:
- Internal Waters: All waters landward of the baseline, including ports, rivers, and bays. The coastal state exercises complete sovereignty with no general right of innocent passage for foreign vessels.
- Territorial Sea: Extends up to 12 nautical miles from the baseline. The coastal state exercises sovereignty over the water column, airspace, seabed, and subsoil, subject to the right of innocent passage for foreign ships.
- Contiguous Zone: Extends up to 24 nautical miles from the baseline. Coastal states may exercise necessary control to prevent and punish infringements of customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws committed within their territory or territorial sea.
- Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ): Extends up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline. The coastal state possesses sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing natural living and non-living resources in the water, seabed, and subsoil.
- Continental Shelf: Comprises the seabed and subsoil of submarine areas extending beyond the territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, up to specified limits.
- High Seas: Areas beyond national jurisdiction open to all nations, governed by principles of freedom of navigation, overflight, scientific research, and laying submarine cables.
Jurisdiction Over Maritime Vessels
The primary principle governing ships on the high seas is the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag state. Exceptions to flag state exclusivity include acts of piracy jure gentium, unauthorized broadcasting, slave trade, and the right of hot pursuit under Article 111 of UNCLOS, where coastal authorities may pursue foreign vessels suspected of violating national laws into international waters.
State Responsibility in International Law
State responsibility is a fundamental principle of customary international law codified by the International Law Commission (ILC) in its Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA, 2001). Under international law, every internationally wrongful act of a state entails the international responsibility of that state.
Elements of an Internationally Wrongful Act
An internationally wrongful act requires two cumulative conditions:
- Attribution (Subjective Element): The conduct consisting of an action or omission must be attributable to the state under international law, such as acts performed by state organs, authorized entities, or persons acting under state direction or control.
- Breach of an International Obligation (Objective Element): The conduct must constitute a breach of an international obligation owed by the state under a treaty, customary rule, or general principle of law.
Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness
The ILC Articles recognize six specific legal defenses that preclude the wrongfulness of an act: consent of the injured state, valid self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, legitimate countermeasures, force majeure, distress, and state of necessity. However, no circumstance precluding wrongfulness may be invoked if the act violates a peremptory norm of general international law (jus cogens).
Legal Consequences and Reparation
A responsible state is under an obligation to cease wrongful conduct, offer appropriate assurances and guarantees of non-repetition, and make full reparation for injury caused. Reparation may take the form of restitution (restoring the pre-existing situation), compensation (financially covering assessable damage), or satisfaction (acknowledging the breach through formal apologies or nominal damages).
Succession to Rights and Obligations
State succession occurs when one state replaces another in the responsibility for the international relations of territory. The legal rules governing succession determine how treaties, public property, state debts, archives, and nationality transfer during decolonization, unification, dissolution, or secession of states.
Succession in Respect of Treaties
The 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties establishes the legal framework for treaty succession. Real or localized treaties (such as boundary and territorial regimes) remain unaffected by state succession and attach to the territory. In contrast, personal or political treaties generally do not bind newly independent states under the clean slate doctrine, allowing successor states to choose which multilateral conventions to join.
Succession Concerning State Property, Debts, and Archives
The 1983 Vienna Convention on State Property, Archives and Debts governs the division of state assets. Immovable state property situated in the territory passes to the successor state. State archives necessary for administrative continuity transfer to the successor entity. State debts are allocated based on equitable proportions agreed between participating states or determined by the location of capital assets.
Distinction Between Recognition of Governments and State Succession
Students must distinguish between a change in government and state succession. A revolution, coup, or constitutional revision changes the governing authority but leaves the international legal personality of the state intact. Treaties, international agreements, and state debts contracted by previous administrations remain binding on the state regardless of internal regime changes, as affirmed in the Tinoco Arbitration (Great Britain v. Costa Rica, 1923).
In contrast, state succession involves the creation of a new international legal entity or the extinction of a predecessor sovereign. In such instances, international law balances legal continuity with the sovereign rights of successor populations, applying specialized rules to determine which obligations survive the transition.
Study Integration with Other Core Law Modules
Understanding the interplay between sovereign regulatory power and public law doctrines is vital across the LLB curriculum. Students preparing for semester examinations can review complementary concepts by consulting our Competition Law Unit III study notes to understand market regulation, as well as our Right to Information Unit III LLB revision guide to examine domestic statutory accountability mechanisms.