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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
LEGAL INSTRUMENTS
UN DOCUMENTS
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
BOOKS
1. The International Law of the Sea : Book by Donald Rothwell and Tim
Stephens……………………………………………………………………………
………….14
2. Law of the Sea: UNCLOS as a Living Treaty, edited by Jill Barrett and
Richard
Barnes………………………………………………………………………
………...11
3. Churchill, R.R. & Lowe, A.V., The Law of the Sea, 3rd Ed. (Manchester:
Manchester University Press,
1999)………………………………………………………………17
4. The Law of the Sea in a Nutshell (Nutshell Series) [Sohn, Louis B.,
Gustafson,
Kristen]……………………………………………………………………
…………..8
5. Kolb, Robert, Case Law on Equitable Maritime Delimitation: Digest and
Commentaries, Introduction. (The Hague: Nijhoff,
2003)………………………...…10
6. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982: A
Commentary………………………………………………………………………
……...……14
7. Tanja, Gerard, The Legal Determination of International Maritime
Boundaries: The Progressive Development of Continental Shelf, EFZ and
EEZ Law (Deventer: Kluwer,
1990)……………………………………………………………………...
….7
8. Vicuna, Francisco O., The Exclusive Economic Zone: Regime and Legal
Nature under International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1989)…………16
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
ARTICLES
3. Rothwell, Donald, and Tim Stephens. The International Law of the Sea.
Oxford and Portland, OR: Hart, 2016.
4. Abe, Aké L., The concept of equidistance/relevant circumstances in the
development of the law of maritime delimitation (2009). World Maritime
University Dissertations. 78. http://commons.wmu.se/all_dissertations/78
5. Anderson, David, Developments in Maritime Boundary Law and
practice, (2005) Vol. V International Maritime Boundaries (Dordrecht,
Nijhoff).
6. Rhee, Sang-Myon, Sea Boundary Delimitation between Sates before
World War II, (1982) 76 AJIL 560.
LEGAL DICTIONARIES
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1. &: And
2. ¶: Paragraph
3. Art.: Article
7. Comm.: Commission
8. DOALOS: Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea
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25. IUCN: The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
STATEMENT OF JURISDICTION
The present memorial set forth the facts, issues raised, arguments advanced
in the present case.
1
Article 288:Jurisdiction
1. A court or tribunal referred to in article 287 shall have jurisdiction over any dispute concerning the
interpretation or application of this Convention which is submitted to it in accordance with this Part
2. A court or tribunal referred to in article 287 shall also have jurisdiction over any dispute concerning the
interpretation or application of an international agreement related to the purposes of this Convention,
which is submitted to it in accordance with the agreement.
3. The Sea-Bed Disputes Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea established in
accordance with Annex VI, and any other chamber or arbitral tribunal referred to in Part XI, section 5,
shall have jurisdiction in any matter which is submitted to it in accordance therewith.
4. In the event of a dispute as to whether a court or tribunal has jurisdiction, the matter shall be settled by
decision of that court or tribunal.
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
STATEMENT OF FACTS
CIRCUMSTANCES OF PARTIES
The parties of the present dispute are neighbouring island states situates near
Atlantic Ocean. The states situated in a manner that they face each other.
Almond has a heavily indented coastline whereas Pistachio has a convex
coastline that faces the Atlantic Ocean. Both the coastlines are stretched along
for approximately 80 km. To avoid any disputes regarding the clashing of the
maritime boundaries and fishing zones of both the states, they had signed a
treaty under UNCLOS, 1982. Both the states are still signatories to the
UNCLOS.
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
NEGOTIATIONS
The State of Pistachio notified Almond of its violation of international law and
requested removal of the fishing experiments and compensation. Almond
refused to be a part of any kind of accountability and rejected to withdraw its
project on the grounds that there has been fundamental change in the
circumstances and its economic dependency.
DISPUTE
Pistachio decided to negotiate with Almond but none of the negotiations
were able to give satisfactory conclusions. The former then decided to
institute proceedings against the latter to resolve the present dispute and
approached ITCLOS.
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV - 02
ISSUE [I].
ISSUE [II].
ISSUE [III].
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SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS
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b) Blue tuna populations have declined severely from overfishing and illegal
fishing over the past few decades owing to economic interests of many states.
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV-02
ARGUMENTS ADVANCED
ii. In the case of New Zealand and Australia vs. Japan, Australia and New
Zealand also asked the Tribunal to issue interim measures requiring Japan
to cease unilateral experimental fishing and the parties to ensure that no
action was taken that would aggravate, prolong, or make the dispute more
difficult to resolve.2
iii. They pleaded with the Tribunal to compel Japan to end its unilateral
programme and limit its catch for any given fishing year to the
Commission's latest agreed-upon national allocation (subject to a decrease
for the quantity of tuna taken by Japan during its fishing programme in
1998–1999).3
2
Southern Bluefin Tuna Cases (New Zealand v. Japan; Australia v. Japan) (Provisional Measures), Order of August
27, 1999 (hereafter: Provisional Measures Order). Text reproduced in ILM, Vol. 38 (1999), pp.1624–1655.
3
Provisional Measures Order, supra note 4, para. 31–32.
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MOOT MEMORIAL IV-02
The parties had previously agreed to limit their operations to their national
designated region for each particular fishing year, demanding that the
Tribunal compel the State of Almond to end its unilateral programme.
The rights of the State of Pistachio may be jeopardised under the UNCLOS
due to the State of Almond's complete lack of cooperation in tuna
conservation and management, so jeopardising the rights of another State. As
a result, it is only fair and appropriate to temporarily infuse the State of
Almond's arbitrary actions in order to maintain the interest in justice and a
judgement based on facts.
vii. It is in the interests of justice for the Tribunal to acknowledge that the
alleged fishing resulted in a ‘permanent physical alteration' of the area in
question, namely the loss of aquatic life in the territory of both islands,
which no amount of money could compensate for.
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viii. If the Tribunal does not order the complete shutdown of State of Almond's
fishing exploration and exploitation operations in the disputed area, it must
require State of Almond to "take all necessary steps" to ensure that
information obtained from its fishing activities is not used against State of
Pistachio, and that no "new fishing" occurs in the disputed area. Because
the State of Pistachio not only has all the sovereign rights to do marine
scientific research without any obstacles or trammels, as has been rightfully
stated by this distinguished institution on several occasions in the past.
i. The factual scenario of the present dispute shows that there is a geographical
disadvantage to both the parties in terms of their respective maritime
boundaries. Almond’s coastline is heavily indented and on the other hand
Pistachio’s coastline is convex. In such circumstances imposing the
equidistant principle would not serve the best of its purpose.
iii. The International Court of Justice (ICJ or the Court) defined special
circumstances as ‘those circumstances which might modify the result
produced by an unqualified application of the equidistance principle’, such
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vi. The ICJ declared Article 15 to be part of customary international law in the
case of Qatar v. Bahrain. 7Although previous decisions maintained the
primacy of equidistance and the corrective function of special
circumstances, subsequent case law foresees a more central role for special
circumstances, downplaying the primacy of equidistance.
vii. Article 15 UNCLOS was part of the relevant legislation in the 2007 ICJ case
between Nicaragua and Honduras. It was found that the parties had not
4
Maritime Delimitation in the Area between Greenland and Jan Mayen (Denmark v Norway) (Judgment) [1993] ICJ
Rep 38, para 55.
5
The territorial sea covers the maritime areas up to 12 nautical miles from the baselines, while the continental shelf
and the EEZ cover the maritime areas under national jurisdiction beyond 12 nautical miles from the baselines. See
Arts 3, 57 and 76 UNCLOS. Normally the baselines are located along the low-water line, but in exceptional cases
they could be drawn as straight lines connecting points on the coast. See Articles 5 and 7 UNCLOS.
6
Although under Art 6 of the Continental Shelf Convention ‘equidistance’ and ‘median’ respectively refer to the
situation of adjacent and opposite coasts, the ICJ held that they are equivalent expressions. See North Sea
Continental Shelf (Federal Republic of Germany/Denmark; Federal Republic of Germany/Netherlands) (Judgment)
[1969] ICJ Rep 3, para 57.
7
Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions between Qatar and Bahrain (Qatar v Bahrain) (Merits) [2001] ICJ
Rep 40, para 176
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agreed on the border. Following that, the Court recognized the two-stage
process utilised in Qatar v Bahrain. 8
viii. Similarly, it was observed in the leading case of Bangladesh and Myanmar
(2012), that the ICJ had agreed to apply equidistant principle only after the
court was not convinced with the presence of ‘special circumstances’ in that
very case. Later on, it was found that the court had taken lead from the
Nicaragua and Honduras dispute though not plainly.
ix. In the year 2014,in the arbitration between Bangladesh and India,
international tribunal established a territorial sea boundary pursuant to
Article 15 UNCLOS. The former pleaded before the tribunal to draw the
boundary as the bisector of the lines approximating the general direction of
the parties’ coasts, since, owing to coastal instability in the Bay of Bengal, it
would have been impossible to select suitable base points to construct an
equidistance line.9 Since, the factt which could not be overlooked was that
the land boundary terminus was not equidistant between the parties’ coasts.
The tribunal thus considered special circumstances twice, both before and
after drawing a provisional equidistance line.10
8
ibid, para 268.
9
Similarly to Nicaragua in Nicaragua v Honduras, Bangladesh contended that ‘the unique geographic facts of this
case, including both the instability of the Parties’ coastlines and the concave configuration of the Bay’s north coast,
mean that the equidistance method cannot be used for any part of the maritime delimitation, including in the
territorial sea’. See Memorial of Bangladesh, paras 1.30 and 5.2, <http://www.wx4all.net/pca/bd-
in/Bangladesh's%20Memorial%20Vol%20I.pdf>.
10
The erratic modus operandi in Bangladesh v India marks a difference with respect to the previous cases, in
which the tribunal concerned either used special circumstances as a corrective for the equidistance line
(Eritrea/Yemen and Qatar v Bahrain), or considered special circumstances only before drawing the
Equidistance line (Nicaragua v Honduras and Bangladesh/Myanmar). The literature on Bangladesh v India has not
criticised the method used in territorial sea delimitation. See D Anderson, ‘Bay of BengalMaritime Boundary:
Bangladesh v India’ (2015) 109 AJIL 153; M Kaldunski, ‘A Commentary on Maritime Boundary Arbitration
between Bangladesh and India Concerning the Bay of Bengal’ (2015) 28 Leiden Journal of International Law 807-
10;
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ii. The Exclusive Economic Zone stretches from the baseline to 200 nautical
miles (or an international maritime boundary with another state). A coastal
state's EEZ includes the following:
Can establish and use artificial islands, installations, structures, and undertake
scientific research and the protection and preservation of the marine
environment.
11
Nicaragua v Honduras (n 33) para 4 (Separate Opinion Ranjeva); Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v
Colombia) (Merits) [2012] ICJ Rep 624, para 4 (Declaration Keith).
12
https://www.imarest.org/all-docman-documents/courses/hyrdography/1077-module-2-
transcript/file#:~:text=The%20first%20example%20shows%20an%20indented%20coastline.&text=This%20has%2
0the%20effect%20of,borders%20of%20the%20coastal%20state.
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iii. A coastal State has the only right to exploit or protect any resources
discovered in the water, on the sea floor, or underneath the subsoil of the sea
bottom in this zone. These resources include both living and non-living
resources, such as fish and oil and natural gas.13States also have exclusive
rights to use waves, currents, and wind to generate energy off the coast.
iv. The counsel for the appellants has less regards for the fishing experiments
and techniques of the respondents as long as they would be in their specific
EEZs.14 Article 56 also authorises states to create and utilise artificial
islands, installations, and buildings, undertake marine scientific research,
and employ Maritime Protected Areas to conserve and conserve the marine
environment.15 Article 58 declares that the Convention's high seas rights
articles 88 to 115 apply to the EEZ "insofar as they are not incompatible
with this Part [V]."16
13
Article 56, UNCLOS
14
Brownlie, Ian, Principles of Public International Law, 6th Ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)
15
Article 56, UNCLOS
16
Article 58, UNCLOS; (Articles 58-115 include the duty to render assistance (Article 98), actions taken to counter
the slave trade (Article 99) and repress piracy (Articles 100-107), suppression of narcotics trafficking (Article 108),
suppression of unauthorized broadcasting (Article 109), the exercise of the peacetime right of approach and visit
(Article 110), and the right to hot pursuit (Article 111)).
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PRAYER
Wherefore, In light of the issues raised, arguments advanced, and authorities cited,
it is humbly prayed before this Hon’ble Court: that this Hon'ble Court may be
pleased to adjudge and declare that:
1. The State of Almond has breached international law with its scientific fishing
activity and must now comply with the Tribunal's provisional regulations.
2. If the Tribunal does not order the complete shutdown of State of Almond's
fishing exploration and exploitation operations in the disputed area, it must
require State of Almond to "take all necessary steps" to ensure that information
obtained from its fishing activities is not used against State of Pistachio, and
that no "new fishing" occurs in the disputed area.
For this act of kindness, the Petitioners shall duty bound forever pray.
PLACE: SD/-
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