On June 15, the Arbitral Tribunal, sitting in The Hague, published its press-release in Case of Dispute Concerning Coastal State Rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait, initiated by Ukraine against Russia since 2016.
This Case was initiated regarding the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration acted as the Registry in this arbitration.
The Arbitral Tribunal decided that Russia violated Articles 123, 192, 194, 205, and 206 of the Convention by conducting the activities with environmental impact for the Kerch Strait bridge, power cables, and gas pipelines in the Kerch Strait.
The Tribunal stated that Russia failed to publish reports of the results of the relevant impact or provide such reports to the competent international organizations and that Russia did not execute its duty to cooperate with respect to the protection and preservation of the marine environment in and around the Kerch Strait.
The Arbitral Tribunal rejected the Russian argument that the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait “constituted a historic bay or were subject to historic title”, but the Tribunal stressed that “the Sea of Azov constituted the internal waters of both Parties at the time the arbitration was initiated” so it considered that relevant Articles of the Convention invoked by Ukraine are inapplicable to the present dispute.
Our experts criticized the tactics of Ukrainian official lawyers in that case, including issues of lack of academic discussion on the position in the case and aspects of total and non-controlled usage of foreign lawyers’ and legal agencies’ services in that proceeding, including the relevant corruption challenges.
