Due to Brexit, dispute has again arisen between the UK and Ireland over Rockall, a small rock in the North-East Atlantic Ocean, and its surrounding waters. On January 4th a Marine Scotland patrol boat stopped and boarded an Irish fishing trawler, forcing it to leave waters within 12 nautical miles of the rock. Scotland asserted the UK claim to Rockall in anticipation of Brexit and sent patrol boats to the area immediately upon formally exiting the EU legal order on January 1st. In response the Irish Ministers for Foreign Affairs and for Agriculture, Food and the Marine issued a joint statement saying they were engaging with Scottish authorities but that “there remains an increased risk of enforcement action being taken by Scottish fisheries control authorities against Irish vessels operating in the waters around Rockall at present.” This is the most recent instantiation of a longer dispute. In May 2019 the Scottish government informed the Irish government that it intended to exclude Irish fishing boats from what it asserts is its 12-mile territorial sea around…
Territorial Disputes
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The Recent Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh: Territorial Control, Peacekeepers and Question of Status
The nine-point ceasefire agreement signed by the president of Azerbaijan, the prime minister of Armenia and the president of the Russian Federation on 9 November 2020 ended 44 days of hostilities that claimed more than 5000 lives. It also transformed the status quo existing in the South Caucasus since the 1994 Bishkek Ceasefire Agreement, which ended the…
At Daggers Drawn: International Legal Issues Surrounding the Conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh
On 10 November, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Statement with the Russian Federation that fundamentally changes the scope of the conflict concerning Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories as well the status of the so-called “Republic of Artsakh” that had declared independence in early 1992. Even if it remains to be seen whether…
Editorial: The Legality of the Israeli Annexation – Redux
Once the American Administration recanted its long standing position as regards Israeli settlements, one could expect, as day follows night, that a shift on annexation would also follow, much to the delight of the Israeli government. It played well to the internal political agenda of both governments. In the case of settlements the State Department at least…
The Monetary Gold Doctrine and the ICC: Can the ICC determine the Territorial Boundaries of Israel and Palestine?
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been engaged in a Preliminary Examination of the situation in Palestine since January 2015. By December 2019, the Prosecutor had come to the conclusion that there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes have been, or are being, committed on territory of Palestine, and that the other…