Tags
IJ
Admissions requirements
Required: Principles of Public International Law and either International Environmental Law or International Dispute Settlement (no exceptions will be made).
Description
This course is dedicated to the law of the sea, i.e. the law that regulates the activities of States and certain other actors and their interactions regarding maritime matters. This course starts by highlighting the main landmarks that shaped the history of the law of the sea and subsequently focusses on the contemporary legal regime governing maritime areas, which consists in great part of the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS). Studying the UNCLOS will allow students to pay close attention to the rules governing the different jurisdictional zones of the ocean, the navigation of ships, the exploitation of living and non-living resources and maritime boundary delimitation. This course also covers the status of land-locked and geographically disadvantaged states and addresses also the relevant international institutional framework, most notably the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). This course also addresses dispute settlement by analyzing landmark, recent, and ongoing disputes pertaining to the law of the sea as a means to identify contemporary legal challenges and as an opportunity look at a specific set of legal issues in greater depth and in context. This course will not cover ‘maritime’ law which focuses on the relations between entities and individuals regarding maritime transport, insurance, and liability.
Course objectives
After successfully completing this course, students will be able to, in terms of knowledge:
- Goal 1: describe and explain prevalent legal concepts under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as well as other relevant international law.
After successfully completing this course, students will be able to, in terms of skills:
Goal 2: conduct research on the theoretical underpinnings of central concepts of the Law of the Sea and apply them to real-life situations, including the tension between state sovereignty and international cooperation at play within maritime areas;
Goal 3: interpret and analyze fact patterns and formulate (preliminary) assessments regarding the law of the sea, including in the framework of its dispute settlement mechanisms;
Goal 4: strategically assess the practical implications of the law of the sea.
Timetable
Once available, timetables will be published in the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
The course adopts a lecture and debate format, actively encouraging student participation. Active knowledge is required of the topics covered in mandatory prerequisite courses and in the compulsory readings for this course. The topics covered in class need to be well understood as they will form the basis of the final exam which will consist of the application of theoretical knowledge to a practical case study. Students will need to demonstrate initiative and exercise independent legal thinking abilities as they will be asked to write a policy brief focusing on a topic of their choosing among the topics related to the law of the sea. In writing this brief, students will also develop their synthesizing and team-working skills.
Assessment
In-class participation and pop quizzes (10%) (Goals 1 and 3); ongoing, weeks 1-7
Critical debate leadership (15%) (Goals 2, 3 and 4); ongoing, weeks 1-7
Presentation of Draft Policy Briefs (10%) (Goals 2 and 4) week 7
Policy brief (25%) (Goals 2 and 4); week 7
Final exam (40%) (Goals 1, 3 and 4); week 8
Please note:
In accordance with article 4.8 of the Course and Examination Regulations (OER), within 30 days after the publication of grades, the instructor will provide students the opportunity to inspect their exams/coursework.
There is a no re-sit policy at Leiden University College.
Blackboard
There will be a Blackboard site available for this course. Students will be enrolled at least one week before the start of classes.
Reading list
Course textbook to be purchased by students:
- Yoshifumi Tanaka, The International Law of the Sea, 3rd edn (Cambridge University Press, 2019), ISBN: 9781108545907
Additional articles and other readings will be made available electronically via the course website on Blackboard, or, where allowed under copyright laws, via weblinks.
Registration
This course is open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator. Interested non-LUC students should contact course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr Hanne Cuyckens, h.cuyckens@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
No exceptions will be made for regarding the required courses in order to enroll in Law of the Sea.